Live to Rise
by Jax Solo
Summary: AVENGERS REMIX! A year after joining SHIELD, it's time for Andy Stark to step up and rise from under her brother's shadow to defeat the greatest threat she's had to face yet. But she'll need more than Tony to survive the coming storm... Cap/OC, Andy/Tony bro-sis fluffle. OWN NOTHING BUT ANDY.
1. Prologue: Enter the Trickster

**Prologue: Enter the Trickster**

"So tell me, in _very_ small words, what it is that's happening with the Cube."

Doctor Erik Selvig looked at me like I didn't know myself, but I was adamant. After all, I'd gotten woken up from my very-uncomfortable bunk not three corridors down from the lab where we were standing, so I needed small words while I woke up. Especially with a lack of coffee that didn't taste like ditch water.

If you're missing the memo, my name's Andy Stark. Yes, Tony Stark's younger sister and the other half of the famed "Iron Twins", that's me. I've been working for the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division – commonly known as SHIELD – for nearly a year, ever since the death of Ivan Vanko and Tony saving both me and himself from dying a nasty death by palladium poisoning from the old reactors. Why am I currently standing in a joint SHIELD-NASA bunker in the middle of the New Mexico desert and arguing with an astrophysicist about using plain English to describe the situation?

It has to do with the glowing blue cube that was perched in a mount just off to my right. From the briefing Director Nick Fury had given me before I'd gotten effectively buried down here, I knew the fancy name for said cube was the Tesseract. Back during World War II, a Nazi science division called Hydra had used it to create an army's worth of powerful weaponry. The recordings I'd gotten a look at of those weapons reminded me a little too much of the repulsors Tony and I used in our armor suits to fly and put bad guys on their backs. Add to that the fact that my father, Howard Stark, had found the Tesseract while searching for any sign of Captain Steve Rogers. After that, he'd studied it as a way to create a sustainable energy source…and those notes, I now knew, were what had led Tony to actually synthesizing his own pieces of said Tesseract and were now used to power the arc-reactors in our chests. But it wasn't like I was going to say I knew all about that.

"And keep it simple for me, too," Fury said as he strode into the lab, black leather coat flapping behind him. There's a lot of things I could say about him, that he's six-foot-one-or-two, no hair but a goatee of sorts, dark skin, eyepatch over his left eye; that I'm sure his favorite color is black because that's the only color he ever wears; but what my personal opinion boils down to he's a son of a bitch who is, mercifully, playing for the good guys. I don't have to like him on a personal level, but I can get along with him professionally. Except I didn't salute while Selvig hurried over to his side, obviously hoping I'd miss the dummy-speak.

"The Tesseract, she's…behaving," was how Selvig started his explanation. "All of a sudden she turned on the power."

"So turn it off," Fury retorted. I shook my head, even managing to get my black bangs out of my eyes.

"The Cube's an energy source, so turning off the power isn't going to do anything; it'll turn it back on," I added, and Selvig nodded confirmation.

"Besides, right now she's only throwing off some interference; mild levels of gamma radiation, nothing too serious," Selvig added, and both Fury and I looked at him like he was nuts.

"'Mild levels of gamma radiation' are what turned Bruce Banner into a global fugitive," I noted calmly, not even making mention of the giant green rage monster he could turn into. For my "initiation" after closing the Expo and finishing my accelerated SHIELD training, I was sent up into British Columbia to go find the said Banner and offer him asylum with SHIELD. It didn't go over too well with him, and I only managed to get away from getting all my bones broken by flying out of his reach and left him the hell alone.

"Hence, harmful," Fury agreed before looking around. I knew who he was looking for before he turned to me; technically I was in charge of the base's total security, so I should know where anyone was at all times. My personal AI, Mental Imaging Network Artificial – Mina, to keep things easy – did most of that heavy lifting for me.

"If you're going to ask about Barton, he's up on his perch," I told him, thumbing over my shoulder to a yellow security post, where Clint Barton, AKA Hawkeye, was watching everyone move under him. Of all my new spy friends, Barton was honestly my favorite. When not being a hard case on a mission, he could crack wise almost as well as Tony, and the fact he preferred a bow to a gun made him a little more interesting. I tapped my Bluetooth earpiece, which was connected to SHIELD's communication network.

"Get down here, Fury might rip on you for not walking among the people."

"If that's what he calls what he's doin', I _like_ bein' up here and not bossin' people around," he answered, but I saw him get up and head for the rope he used to ascend and, in this case, descend from his nest. I couldn't help but grin. "Just 'cause he's metaphorical God doesn't mean I gotta follow suit all the time."

"Not all, but some," I amended, and Fury went off to get a situation report from Barton. I turned to eye the Tesseract, tapping slightly on my reactor in thought. Fury never needed to know that Tony and I could effectively synthesize our own Tesseract if we ever felt like it, but something about knowing that connection made me uneasy. I crossed my arms and sighed, leaning against a shelf.

"What's on your mind, Andy?" Selvig asked me, not unkindly. No matter how often we butted heads, he was still friendly and even treated me almost like a daughter. Sometimes if I just needed to get something off my chest, I'd tell him in the relative privacy of the commissary over a cup of that ditchwater coffee. Being buried down here meant I hadn't had a lot of outside contact, so that meant no Tony, no Pepper, and no Rhodey or Sam, my best friend from MIT who was also in the Air Force. I offered him a shrug and turned to look at him through the metal netting keeping his computer from blowing hot air into me.

"Just stuff. Thinking, is all."

"You know you can tell me."

"I trust you, doc, but…I dunno. Bad feeling."

"What bad feeling?" Fury asked, getting me to straighten up as quick as possible.

"The power surge thing," I replied, and Barton nodded, obviously moving to cover me with his breakdown. I hadn't put him on this particular bunch of scientists for nothing.

"There's been no outside contact with anyone, no messages or IMs…whatever caused it, it wasn't on our end, sir," Barton clarified. That made Fury double-take, if only for a flicker of a second.

"On…this end?"

"If the Cube can not only generate energy, but also open a door to the other side of the universe, for all we know," I explained, "then, well, there's got to be someone out there somehow trying to trigger the Cube."

"Doors open from both sides," Barton added.

Fury was about to ask something, but he didn't get a chance to. An electric rattle filled the air, and I started back a bit as the Tesseract glowed nearly-white. I only just had time to lunge for the locker I'd gotten installed in this sort of event before the Cube activated, shooting a stream of light towards the arrays Selvig had arranged to try and contain whatever energy the Tesseract would put out. But instead of shooting energy into them, the Cube's light seemed to pool and darken, and my eyes widened as a literal portal opened. I had to turn away from the appearance of foreign stars and the arms of some kind of nebula to wrench open the locker and pull on the metal backpack within. I just had time to secure the clamp over my reactor and around my hips before turning to see a new figure half-crouched on the platform under the arrays.

"Mina, get the travel suit on me now, please," I muttered into my earpiece, and obviously Mina was too busy to offer commentary as the black plates on my back opened, then folded around me. I'd had time to make up a Mark VI suit, to replace the Mark IV I had lost in Monaco that had been integrated into my motorcycle…which, too, was no more. It closed up tight, and my helmet clacked into place only a few seconds after, HUD flaring to life. Barton's security team was moving forward slowly, and I was careful to do the same, gaze fixed on the newcomer.

Even though he looked human, his clothes looked more at home in a renaissance fair: long green robes trimmed in black and gold, a lot of leather in his shirt and various belts. His face was long and pointed, almost regal, and with his long black hair slicked back as it was, despite the flippy-ness at the back, only added to that impression. What immediately caught my notice, though, was the gold spear-looking-thing in his right hand, and the dark blue crystal installed in it.

"Sir!" Fury barked once the man was standing, breathing heavily from his movement from space into the base. "I'm gonna hafta ask you to put _down_ the spear."

"Andy, I'm getting wild energy readings, from the Tesseract energy up in the ceiling, and from that scepter," Mina reported, zooming in on both points of interest. "I'm pretty sure that energy is going to level this place, and who knows, maybe we'll take the bad guy with it."

"Let's hope so," I retorted, and just in time. The stranger from outer space suddenly leaned back, and with a noise matching that of the repulsors a blast fired from his spear. Barton went to cover Fury while things exploded, and the security men opened fire. I was starting to charge forward, one of the plasma-channel blades in my gauntlets extending, but he'd literally _flown_ over me, apparently unharmed by the bullets. I dodged out of the way of a trio of little throwing knives that appeared from his sleeve, and I rolled to his left to barely avoid another blast from his scepter.

"Shit, Mina, is this one of those can't-handle-alone bad guys Fury was talking about a year ago?" I asked, trying to regain my breath as I forced myself back onto my feet. She didn't get a chance to reply, that or I missed it, because the green-robed freak swept up behind me. I nearly had my blade up to slash at him, but he not only blocked me with his right arm, but he _held_ there. I was forced to look up at him, into light blue eyes that looked unnatural and half-crazed.

"…you have heart," he breathed after a few seconds' consideration.

"If you're tryin' to flirt with me, man, it's not gonna work," I grunted, but he ignored me, raising his spear and aiming it for my chest. I heard it powering up, and I was about to bring my other fist around for a surprise attack when someone rammed against me, shoving me out of the way. I barely had time to roll away and get close to Fury before the space-guy completed his maneuver. The pointy end of his spear met Barton's chest, and something flowed from it to him, all the way up his face and into his eyes.

"…dear God," I breathed. Fury was already a few seconds ahead of me, pulling out the Tesseract and lodging it into its case, and I got up to help him close and secure it before his voice rang out.

"Please don't. I need that."

"This doesn't need to get worse," Fury replied evenly, half-turned towards him. I was scanning the ruins of the lab, spotting Selvig alive and moving, starting to get up. I helped him to his feet as the stranger took a few steps closer to Fury, smiling slightly and being ever so suave. And, no, this is not me admiring the guy.

"Oh, but it does," he continued. "I am Loki, and I am burdened with glorious purpose."

"Loki?!" Selvig breathed in shock, and I glanced at the stranger – Loki – very warily. I'd read the debriefing Selvig had given after Pueblo Antigua, a tiny New Mexico town, had been virtually leveled on account of a bit of family hate from another planet. I'd had to hit up Wikipedia to look up some intel on the Norse pantheon, and I knew Loki as a trickster who had some very serious identity issues. Obviously this Loki didn't have as much, or so I hoped.

"We don't have a quarrel with your people," Fury tried, playing a diplomat I'd never seen before.

"An ant has no quarrel with a boot," was Loki's cold rejoinder.

"What, you plan to step on us?" I asked sharply, and Loki rewarded me with a glance and a cold smile. Something about this guy was rubbing me the wrong way.

"I bring _glad_ tidings!" he answered. "Of a world made free."

"From _what_?" Fury asked. Loki turned that hard, cold gaze to him, and I tried to wave Selvig towards the door and safety. The problem, though, was he was drifting uncomfortably closer to Loki, and Mina flashed a warning at me.

"That energy's getting to critical mass, hurry it up!"

"_Freedom_," Loki informed Fury scathingly, and that made my chest freeze. Loki pressed on anyway, "Freedom is life's great lie. And once you accept that…in your _heart_…"

"Selvig!" I barked, but it was too late. Loki had already turned and, just like with Barton, planted the tip of his scepter into Selvig's chest. Purplish tendrils flashed up Selvig's neck and face, and it was all I could do not to lunge forward and kill the bastard. Fury, too, moved a hand to hold me back, though honestly I could have just shot over his grasp – or through it.

"…you will know peace," Loki breathed in conclusion, and since his back was to us I was able to glance up at the steadily-growing mass of energy licking at the concrete dome over the energy arrays.

"When you say _peace_," Fury noted, "I kinda think you mean the other thing."

"Sir, Director Fury is stalling," Barton interrupted. Dammit, man, you had to go all self-sacrificing for me, now I have to owe you. "He intends to bury us."

"Just like the pharaohs of old," Fury replied smugly. I looked over at him and, had my faceplate been open, I could've more successfully given him the arched brow and scowl I was giving him.

"…Nick, this wasn't in the retirement plan I picked out," I deadpanned, but my attempt at humor went unnoticed.

"He's right, we've got about two minutes before this goes critical," Selvig confirmed, and before I could react Barton fired a bullet towards Fury. But before the Tesseract's case hit the ground, I'd lunged forward, not at Barton, but Loki, blade out and ready to give a beating. Thankfully, he hadn't expected that, and I drove him into the floor before rolling back.

"I'll let you have five minutes to get this guy, but you have to get out before then!" Mina informed me sharply. "I'm alerting Coulson and Hill!"

"Great, you do that!" I told her, and blocked a vicious lunge from Loki. I jumped up and fired my boots into him, propelling upward vertically and aiming down towards where Fury had dropped the case. I barely had time to see Barton and Selvig escaping – with the Tesseract's case – before a blast hit me square in the back, throwing me into the wall just below where that energy was getting larger and more energetic. I crashed down to the floor to watch Loki dash out, though clutching his midsection, but I wasn't going to let him go so easy. I only spared Fury a glance – he was up and moving, clever bastard – before running out after Loki.

"Hill, I'll meet you up there, we've got to catch him," I barked into my earpiece, but the only reply I got was gunfire; obviously Loki and his new friends were already on the move. I didn't waste time, running through corridors and using my thrusters to save time in the climbing. I got to the lower vehicle bay, just in time for Maria Hill, Fury's right-hand woman, to honk the horn of a jeep at me.

"Get in!" she yelled over the thundering rock, and I got into the back before she pulled out and tore into the tunnels. "Tell me what's going on!"

When Maria Hill is yelling at you and it's a life or death situation, you tell the woman what's going on. It was a lesson I learned during my run from Banner's green rage monster.

"Tesseract opened up a portal; guy named Loki came through and did some kind of mind-control on Barton and Selvig," I reported as she drove us through side tunnels to try and catch up. "They've got the Tesseract and are making a trail."

"Then I hope this works," Hill replied before slamming a hard right into the main tunnel. I saw a flash of green as the jeep skidded in reverse, then met the other car grill to grill. Now I had a clear view of Loki, hunched down on the truck bed, but a shot not so much. Despite the need to get Barton, Selvig, and Tesseract back whole, I wasn't risking exploding their whole truck just to get Loki.

Hill saved some time and tried to shoot something, which made Barton shoot back. I hung on, watching Mina's timer on the imminent explosion, but yelped as I was nearly pitched out as Barton accelerated and somehow got mine and Hill's jeep off of his front. I was cursing violently for about two seconds as Hill got the jeep back in gear and tried to hurry up.

"You got a shot yet?!" she asked over the echo of the engines and the sounds of breaking rock. I dared to look up and saw Loki still hunkered in the bed ahead of us, but a quick x-ray scan made me curse.

"He's perched on the gas tank, if I blow him I send Barton and Selvig with him!" I replied, and it got a bad word out of Hill. "If you can't get this thing to go faster, I can get you a bit of a boost –"

My offer came a bit late, because the tunnel behind us started dropping in a massive wave. I hated myself for it, but if I hadn't thrown myself out of the jeep and shot after Loki I would have met a very large boulder that dropped into the truck bed I'd been occupying. Of course, this meant Loki had a shot at me now, or at least a shot that he'd been delaying.

I was out of the tunnel just after his truck, and thankfully I had air support in the form of Fury's helicopter, though however much help that was going to be I wasn't sure yet. Still, I swung down low and blasted craters ahead of the truck, but Barton swung around them all. I would've opened up with the unibeam if Fury's chopper hadn't swung ahead of me to try and give Fury a shot. It was a bad move, too, because Loki got up, aimed, and shot a blast into the tail of the chopper, which summarily burst into flames.

"…oh, _hell_," I grumbled, because right after a piece of the chopper's debris slammed into my gut, throwing me down to the ground and preventing me from chasing down Loki. I managed to get the debris off me, and just in time to see Fury up and well.

"Stark, Hill, Coulson, status," his voice insisted in my ear.

"Right behind you…idiot scratched my paint job," I decided to complain.

"We just managed to avoid the collapse, sir," Coulson reported in; ever-loyal and ever-dogged Phil Coulson was a guy you could count on to start something. After all, if it hadn't been for him, Tony and I wouldn't be on SHIELD's radar, or at least not so prominently as we are now.

"There's still a lot of men trapped down here," Hill coughed from the tunnel I'd had to leave her in. "No idea of survivors."

"Anyone not on rescue, I want looking for the Tesseract," Fury ordered, and a pit dropped into my stomach. "I'm calling this a Level Seven. As of now, we are at war."

It was what Fury had warned me about a year ago, before SHIELD's command council had scrapped the Avengers Initiative. Now there was someone out there ten times worse than Stane and Ten Rings and the Hammeroids and even Vanya. It was someone I couldn't take down alone. I doubted that Tony and I, even with SHIELD support, would have been able to do it.

"…what do we do, _sir_?" I asked, even tacking on the honorific to reflect the new level of serious. The thought was on my mind right as Fury said it.

"What we _need_ is a response team."


	2. 1: Playing Recruiter

**A/N:** See, I promised it'd be up sooner rather than later! Though this is not me implicitly promising daily updates. Even I can't do that. But how about I post when I can, hmmm? Anyway, enjoy!

* * *

**1: Playing Recruiter**

"Mina, remind me again why I told Fury, oh, yes, I'll come work for SHIELD…"

I had to sidestep a scooter that nearly plowed into me, but as it was in Calcutta traffic stopped for no one, not even a SHIELD agent looking for a potentially-helpful but also potentially-dangerous scientist who for some reason decided Calcutta was a great place to hide out. I was prepared in case of that sort of trouble, Mark VI strapped to my back – the all-black paint job restored – and upgraded Bluetooth in my ear. When I say upgraded, I mean that not only did I have my earpiece, but I also had added in a retractable micro-screen that was currently deployed over my right eye. Through it, Mina was feeding me tracking data on a very particular source of gamma radiation, and, of course, she could still speak to me.

"First," Mina began, almost a little too smartly for my liking, "your basic scores in diplomacy, combat, and command all outrank Tony's."

"Like that one wasn't obvious," I muttered, dodging around a cluster of housewives yelling at each other in front of a market stall in Hindi. "Next justification?"

"Well, your father worked with SHIELD. And the SSR, too, just for future reference."

"That must've been what he was doing when he was Tony's age, instead of screwing around," I muttered, though inside I couldn't help but feel a little bit pleased. After having a fairly negative relationship with my dad, it had only been in the past couple of years I'd actually found out that, not only had he loved me and Tony in near-equal amounts, but he'd also laid a lot of groundwork that Tony and I now operated on. This includes the reactors, thanks to his work on the Tesseract, and our semi-relationship with SHIELD. Also knowing Dad wasn't a womanizing drunk at twenty-something was a huge relief.

"…and don't forget your mother was a SSR agent," Mina finished quietly, and that made me pause in my steps, nearly getting walked over by twenty other people.

I'd never known my mother, Maria Carbonell Stark, very well. All I did remember of her was her kindness, affection, and the fact that she had died when I was five years old. When Fury had recruited me, he'd revealed one of what I guessed was dozens of things she had never been able to tell me: that, during the Second World War, a little younger than my dad, she had been a member of the Strategic Scientific Reserve, the organization that grew up to become SHIELD. She had known and fought alongside with Captain America – a little less known as Steve Rogers – and, for all I knew, had fallen in love with my father then, despite getting married in '62. And I hadn't known that until a year ago.

_What other secrets did you never tell me, Mom?_

"…that, too," I muttered weakly. I shifted the Mark VI around on my shoulders uncomfortably, but managed to pull myself out of my thoughts. I had a job to do, one that had to get done if SHIELD was going to find the Tesseract and get me another crack at Loki. "Better keep moving, before he startles and runs."

"That or completely unleashes hell on you again."

"Thanks, Mina, that's a really comforting thought," I retorted as I set off along the street again. I was able to focus a little better, trading my glances between the street and the tracking data until I found the house where my target, Bruce Banner, was apparently currently at. I tapped my earpiece to get the screen to retract, and I was very careful and quiet as I slipped into the house's tiny courtyard and ascended the stuccoed stairs.

I was soon in a small room, or just below one, near a bed filled with sick kids. The lady of the house noticed me fairly quickly – honestly, how often do you see an American just randomly sticking her head into people's houses in Calcutta? – and started snapping at me in Hindi. Obviously, I don't understand, much less speak, Hindi, so I raised my hands in a universal 'I surrender' gesture.

"I'm looking for the doctor," I said slowly and clearly. "Doctor Bruce Banner."

A figure behind the colorful sari moved, and I leaned back to see around her. Unlike when I'd met him in Canada, Banner had actually put on what looked like healthy muscle, his dark-but-slightly-graying hair curling lazily across his forehead. His eyes quickly fixed on me, and I kept my hands up. It wasn't like I carried a gun on me, but I knew that any sudden movement could get him turning big and green and I'd have to run pretty fast.

"…who's asking?" he asked me while drying off his hands. I didn't dare move up any higher from where I was, mostly to avoid catching germs but also to keep him from feeling threatened.

"I'd rather not say here," I answered. "There's a safehouse on the edge of the city, you can meet me there when you're ready."

"Still like to know how you found me," Banner insisted, and I swallowed a sigh.

"Some mutual friends never really lost you," I replied, and he seemed to get who I meant fairly quickly. Of course, I couldn't help but deadpan, "Also, gamma radiation on people is kinda rare."

"…wait downstairs," Banner ordered, and I complied. After all, this was his territory; I wasn't going to be an idiot like General Ross and force him to dance to my tune on his turf. That caused problems like Blonsky and Harlem getting nearly reduced to rubble.

"Say, what're the odds that he actually Hulks out and nearly kills me again?" I asked Mina while we waited for Banner to come down – or, if he wasn't going to cooperate, letting him get a move on before I went off to find him again.

"Well, you didn't really surprise him this time," Mina thought aloud, "and one sarcastic comment compared to three significantly improves those odds. I'd guess…five-to-one."

"Better than the one-to-one of last time?"

"…not much."

"…again, Mina, your confidence is _so_ inspiring."

"So glad I can assist," Mina retorted crisply, and I was seriously thinking about scrubbing her code once I had some free time as Banner appeared down the stairs. All I gave him was a brief nod before motioning him to follow me.

"So what does SHIELD want with me? Or, should I ask, what do they want with…the other guy?" Banner asked once we were buried deep into the crowds. I figured he'd be wary that the safehouse was bugged – likely it was, I hadn't swept it – so of course he'd ask questions while he figured he was mostly safe. He didn't have to know about Mina listening in.

"You, Doc, not big-green-nasty," I replied over the constant rumble of people and traffic. "They've lost something, and they want your help finding it."

I managed to pull out my Stark Mobile – my personal iPhone competitor, though it was still in something like a test phase – and scrolled through my picture files. Tony's smirk, a shy one of Pepper, Hogan looking like Hogan, Rhodey grinning, Sam glaring up at the camera…_there_ it was. I hit the photo of the glowing blue Tesseract, plugged into its idle mount in its storage case, with my thumb before passing the clear pane of fiber-optics-ridden screen material to him.

"It's called the Tesseract," I explained while he studied in, sometimes tugging him out of the way of one of those sorta-not-really trucks that was trying to blast down the street. "It's an energy source that could also wipe Earth off the face of the galaxy."

"So what's Fury want me to do, swallow it?"

"That would be if he wanted other-you," I informed him, taking back the Mobile while I was at it. "Since he wants _you_, I think he wants you to help find it."

"And why me?" Banner asked as we got to the edge of Calcutta and headed towards the dilapidated little house that put him on SHIELD territory. Him being who he is, I had to think about this.

My immediate thought for an answer was, _well, because Fury was thinking about scouting you out for Avengers, hence me coming after you in Canada, but then it got scrapped so, y'know, maybe it's his way of getting back at the council_. But that would've been too many parts to explain, and for all I knew he'd Hulk out if I divulged that we'd crossed paths before.

"You're the expert," I settled on instead. Maybe a bit of professional flattery would keep him contained. "If there was someone better, I wouldn't be here."

"Neither would I, I think," Banner agreed as we stepped inside. There was nothing fancy about the place; it was essentially a typical outskirts house that had seen better days. I settled into a rickety chair at an equally-rickety table, but he moved towards an interior well, a basket of some kind strapped over it. "So…we're on the outskirts. Smart of you."

"It's been about six months since your last…incident," I replied, though honestly the last public incident was a year back. Harlem. "I don't think you'd want to break that streak."

"…there's a lot of times I don't get what I want," Banner noted softly, and I watched him rock the basket, just a little. It hit me right about then that he wasn't much different from Tony and me: a smart guy who got on the bad side of some trouble and had initially come out the worse. But at least unlike Tony, he had a quality of…restraint. Control. He knew _how_ to manage himself, and therefore, how to contain the monster inside. But what he wanted – hell, maybe that included a Nobel Prize and a family – had to get pushed aside because of the Hulk.

"…same here," I dared to reply, and that got him to look up at me suspiciously. "You think I wanted to be in this business? You think I wanted any of this? I didn't. But there's nothing to do but do the best we can."

"…so what if I say no?" Banner asked, moving away from the basket – maybe even a crib – to look at me.

"I'll have to persuade you _somehow_."

"And if the…other guy says no?"

"…then I'll have to run like hell, don't I?" I deadpanned, and that got him to smirk, if only a little. "Look, Bruce, trust me here. If you come with me, help SHIELD get the Cube back, we'll let you off the hook. No muss, no fuss."

I almost held my breath as he considered it. If he said yes, then we could just go and get to work. If not…well, then my day was officially ruined.

"How do I know Fury isn't going to put me in a cage?" Banner asked suddenly, and I stiffened slightly. Now warning flags of my own were going up. I knew he had every right to be suspicious of SHIELD, even I was and I worked for them. I also knew about the cage Fury had just in case the Hulk ended up being too volatile and had to be put down. I doubted anything _could_ kill the Hulk, and therefore kill Banner.

"No one's going to put you in a cage –"

"_Stop lying to me!_" he yelled suddenly, and in a show of dexterity that could have put Natashalie to shame I backflipped off my chair and jumped back into a fighting stance, fists up and ready to have Mina deploy the Mark VI. But Banner backed off as soon as I had flipped back, smiling apologetically.

"…I'm sorry…that was mean…" Banner apologized, and I gave him a disbelieving look. "I just wanted to see what you'd do."

"…dude, that was _not cool_."

"Well, um, would it be better if I said yes, I'll go?"

"…really?" I asked, straightening up. That didn't seem kosher, but, hey, if he was coming, I wasn't going to complain. Still, it didn't drop all the warning flags in my head, and I wanted never being sure about _anything_. It comes from having Tony as your crazy semi-psychotic elder brother.

I escorted Banner out of the safehouse and to the SHIELD plane I was borrowing. To minimize people getting hurt, Mina had hijacked the controls, and therefore was flying us back to base. I got the Mark VI off me before sitting down, Banner across from me, and settled in for the ride. And, well, since I can fly in my suit and not on a plane, I was trying not to move, talk, or really even breathe. So, of course, Banner asked questions.

"Anything else I ought to know? Before, you know, I get pulled back into the freak show that so happens to be SHIELD."

"Not much else, Doc," I answered as quickly as I could. Couldn't think about the plane, wasn't going to think about the plane…. "Just SHIELD's ready to give you all kinds of fun toys to help find the Cube and, who knows, maybe we'll find the bad guy and other-you can stomp on him."

"…cute image."

"I try my best. Now, please, shut up…I hate planes…"

I'd swear I heard Banner chuckling at me, but, hey, at least it was the truth.


	3. 2: The Captain is a Girl's Best Friend 1

**2: The Captain is a Girl's Best Friend, Part I**

Since it was night in Calcutta when I got Bruce, and SHIELD's home base was currently over the Atlantic, we had to double back over the International Date Line to catch up. Trust me, me being me in an airplane that long was not a pleasant mix, so I bonded with a bucket while Banner rubbed my back and at least tried to be sympathetic. Y'know, when he wasn't chuckling over the fact Tony Stark's kid sister can't hold her breakfast in an airplane no matter what she does. Still, Mina bringing the plane down onto one of the two tarmacs SHIELD's "aircraft carrier" supported was an immense relief, and I managed to get up and pitch the fairly-recent contents of my stomach over the side while Banner went to explore a little, though obviously not much. I'd just finished emptying out said bucket when I saw another SHIELD plane on approach, and I grinned a little.

Of course, that grin vanished when a redhead came out from the tower portion of the carrier. Even though her hair was a much brighter red and waved down to just above her shoulders, there was no mistaking the determined stride of Natasha Romanoff, more fondly known to me as Natashalie. She'd been a plant to watch Tony and me while we were palladium-sick, and I was just as much not fond of her as she was of me. I was still surprised when she gave me a nod of greeting, and I managed to return it.

"Still get airsick on planes?" she asked, ever so calmly, and I did my best not to strangle her. Despite my respectable hand-to-hand rating from training, I still wasn't anywhere near Natashalie's grade.

"It's that obvious?" I asked, and I think I was able to get a smirk out of her before the other plane landed. Remembering Fury's assignments on who-gets-whom, I approached the plane and offered Coulson a grin as the back hatch opened.

"Okay, Phil, make my day," I said by way of greeting. "Tell me Tony isn't with you."

"He's not, but I left him with homework and a bribe from Miss Potts," he informed me as clean and crisp as ever. I dared to glance at Natashalie, who, ironically, was glancing at me. Ever since I'd seen the two of them – Tony and Pepper, that is – practically making out in the aftermath of stopping Justin Hammer from completely blowing up the Expo – thanks to Vanya, who'd let his hope for revenge get to his head – I had been afraid of Pepper and Tony becoming ever more "serious".

"…great, now they're going to get worse," I commented to the both of them. "So who's with you?"

Coulson nearly didn't have to answer. Coming up behind him was a man about six-one, neatly-combed blond hair arranged out of his blue eyes in a military style despite the civilian clothes, which looked like they belonged to another era entirely. Even though I had never seen his exaggerated image without the red, white, and blue uniform, I felt something like shock grab into my chest. Coulson was doing his best to hide a faint smile; I knew just how big a fanboy he was of Captain America, and there he was in the flesh, alive and well.

_He knew Dad. He knew Mom._

"Captain Rogers, Agents Romanoff and Stark," Coulson introduced us, and it wasn't Natashalie that had caught Rogers' attention. Those blue eyes were fixed on _me_, as if he knew exactly who I was. A very unfamiliar shiver shot down my spine, and it became persistent as he extended his hand for me to shake.

"…nice to meet you, ma'am," he said, extremely friendly and polite. It was everything I could do to blink, breathe, and take his hand firmly. The warmth of his skin meant he was _very_ real, indeed.

"Andy," was what I eked out in reply. "Short for Andrea. Please, not ma'am."

"I'll try to remember," Rogers answered with a smile, and my stomach did a weird flip as he let go of my hand and moved back.

"Coulson, you're needed on the command deck, they're starting the phase trace," Natashalie told Coulson while I was struggling not to notice that Rogers was staring at me like he was trying to place me from somewhere. I had a feeling he was either going to hit on Mom or Dad, but Natashalie interrupted the both of us.

"Caused quite a stir when you were found buried in the ice," she said as the three of us started walking towards, I saw, where Bruce was looking around a little hesitantly. Great. Last thing we needed was him panicking. "I thought Coulson was going to swoon."

"…wait, _you_ knew about him getting found, but didn't tell me?" I asked. "Gee, thanks, Nat, I thought we were better friends than that…"

"You knew who I was when you threw me into the mat of your brother's boxing ring."

"Because he was going off to Google you and wanted to banter with Pepper…besides, I bet Coulson forgot to ask him to sign those Captain America trading cards he's had for, what, _ever_?"

"Trading cards?" Rogers asked, sounding surprised. I glanced at him and saw, yes, he was surprised. Duh. Right. I had to stop double-checking that people looked like what they sounded.

"You were the biggest thing _anywhere_ for a long time," I explained. "The comics and movies with you in them are nothing compared to the cards and costumes and action figures…"

"Andy. You're going to send him into overload," Natashalie chastised me, but I just stuck my tongue out at her because that's what Tony would've done. Hey, it still got a chuckle out of Rogers.

"And another intro…Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers, Steve, Bruce, Andy, Natashalie," I said once we'd caught up with Banner, though Natashalie gave me one of those looks that meant 'you are crazy and I'd hit you if you weren't actually my co-worker'.

"…didn't know you were going to be here," Banner said in surprise while he shook Rogers' hand.

"Well, I've heard that you can find the Cube," Rogers replied calmly, though Banner glanced at me before back at Rogers.

"Is that the _only_ thing you've heard about me?"

"The only one I care about," Rogers answered. Smart man.

"Andy, they'll be taking off in a minute, how about you get them inside before low oxygen hits?" Mina advised in my ear, and I guess Natashalie heard it since she started heading for the nearest door.

"Guys, I know you wanna chat and get acquainted and all," I smoothly interrupted since I was abandoned, "but we'd better get inside. It's gonna be kinda hard to breathe soon."

Sure enough, the proximity alarms went off, and the "skittles" manning the various flight crews scurried to get the planes tied down. Rogers and Banner looked around with some concern, though Banner more so than Rogers.

"Is this a submarine?" the latter asked.

"Really, putting me in an underwater pressurized container…" the former muttered as they approached the edge of the deck, but I smirked because I knew what they were going to be seeing. Rising up from the otherwise-calm ocean were four ultra-powerful maglev turbines, which could effortlessly lift and hold the otherwise-normal aircraft carrier under our feet in the air and still perform all sorts of operations. The general term was _helicarrier_, and I loved the sound of it so much that, early in my SHIELD career, I'd mapped out the entire damn thing, built Mina a new server, and set about upgrading and tightening the place to be even more impregnable than originally designed. I heard the rotors picking up speed, but it didn't block Banner's deadpan comment, "No, this is _much_ worse."

At least I knew I wasn't going to be sick. Not an airplane, after all.

"So, inside, gents?" I asked, and both Rogers and Banner fell in behind me as we entered the helicarrier's interior. Since I essentially had an entire schematic of the carrier in my head, it was no problem to escort them through the efficient military corridors to the sleek command deck, with Fury manning the "captain's stand", since he didn't have a chair. I settled in at the conference table as the helicarrier rose up to thirty thousand feet in about a minute, and was rocking back comfortably once the reflection panels were engaged, essentially causing the helicarrier to disappear entirely. I only half-listened to Fury meeting with Banner and Nat taking him off to his lab – which left me with Rogers.

"…looks like you're my tour guide, then," he commented about a second after I'd realized it, and I managed to give him a smile. In all honesty, I was trying to avoid saying _anything_ about finding the comics and the toys and how I always "played" him when Tony and I were little enough to do that sort of thing.

"Sure does; armory first," I told him once I was on my feet. Usually, I'm proud for my height; without the thick-soled boots I was wearing, I was a comfortable five-foot-eight, five nine-ish. With the boots, I was standing nearly six feet tall, and very nearly eye-to-eye with my childhood hero. "I mean, if that's okay with you."

"Definitely, ma'am," Rogers answered with that smile of his, but it didn't stop my little wince. Mom was ma'am, I was guessing.

"…Andy, Cap. _Please_, Andy. Andrea if you _really_ have to."

"Right. Andy, yeah, sorry…"

"Don't worry about it, I'll remind you if you forget," I assured him with a grin of my own before we ventured into the corridors again.

"Place is a lot more than I expected," Rogers admitted after a few turns. "Had to pay up a bet and everything."

"Fury?" I asked, and when he nodded I whistled a little. "His bet? So he's a gambling man…gotta remember that…"

"Definitely his bet," Rogers insisted, and I laughed at that. I hadn't needed the confirmation, but the way he'd said it was…I don't know. It was different. No one talked like that anymore, not really. But he gave me a smile anyway, and I decided to take the long way through the helicarrier than the direct one, if only to mull over the sudden development that had just gotten thrown at me. This was the guy who, essentially, had brought my parents together, and maybe, just maybe, he could tell me stuff about them that I never had a chance to know before.

I would've started questioning him if he hadn't started getting long, hopeful looks, admiring looks, and a couple of folks even stopped us to ask to shake his hand, get an autograph, if only to say they had seen Captain America. I was trying to hide a smile, but it was impossible because of the awkward ease with which Rogers obliged them. Unlike Tony, he was almost embarrassed to be famous, and after about the third autograph I decided, well, I had to say something.

"People still talk about it, you know, what you did," I started, feeling more than a little awkward, myself. "It changed everything."

"…I was just doing my job," Rogers answered humbly, and that was something I knew I'd never get out of Tony. Sometimes I felt that way, wearing the suit: you're just doing what you needed to do, what you wanted to do. Maybe I'd said to Banner that I hadn't wanted to be different, but I had chosen to live with it, chosen to _be_ different. Rogers had done the same thing.

"…doing your job helped to end a war. And, so you know, Hitler killed himself."

"Really?" he asked, almost bemused by that. "Here I was thinking he'd fight to the end."

"Couldn't take losin', I guess," I replied with a shrug, and he nodded in acceptance of the fact. Besides, I was silently adding, Rogers had almost entirely decimated Hitler's weapons development program by knocking off Hydra. I glanced up when I noticed we were coming up on our destination, so I cleared my throat in the most clichéd thing _ever_.

"Here's the armory…your uniform's in there, along with your shield…hey, they even put on some fresh paint," I commented while peering inside. Undoubtedly he wouldn't want to get in there and get it on right away, but I was proved wrong as he got the door open and stepped inside, sighing almost heavily as he looked at the stars-and-stripes that were virtually the same as what he had worn back in the forties. I wondered what it had to be like, to go "under" like that, to practically die, and nearly a lifetime later wake up and find the world had blown right past you. I dared to ease up next to him and rest a hand on his shoulder, mustering my courage to just say _something_.

"…the world needs you, Cap. More than any of the rest of us, really."

…great, Stark, just great. But he turned to look at me, almost out of curiosity.

"Aren't the stars and stripes a little…old-fashioned?" he asked me, and something in me flinched in horror. Unlike Tony, who loved the bleeding edge of the new and different, I had an almost-painful soft spot for the past. After all, without that, who _were_ we?

"…never," I answered after a moment of thought, then amended it to, "Not really. There might be folks who forget what it means, but every so often…there're folks who remind them. Like you."

When he smiled at me, I'd swear I felt like something inside me was going to…I don't know, explode. It was as if I was hot and cold and everything at once. To be fair, this is a new sensation for me; I've never been the dating type, and if I were I still don't think I would've known how to react on feeling like this. So my face started burning as the only way to express it. Smooth. Really smooth.

"…how about I take you over to your rooms, so you can settle in…I'm sure we'll get word of Loki at the very least soon," I stammered a little, managing to drop my hand though I couldn't help but aggressively rub at my palm. Rogers' smile didn't even waver.

"Sure thing, ma'am – Andy. Sorry."

I chuckled weakly at him, even as we left the armory.

"It's all right, really."

"I'm going to remember. Andy. Andy…Stark."

His face clouded a little as we turned for the personnel area of the helicarrier, and I dared to wonder how it was he remembered my father. Were they friends, professionals, rivals forced to work together?

"…Howard's…daughter?" he asked me, and I nodded a little. Maybe SHIELD just didn't equip him with a file about me. Rogers still grinned faintly anyway. "So he had the decency to get married after all."

"What, was he a womanizing jerk like my brother?" I dared to ask, trying to keep the hungry note out of my voice.

"Well, I saw him kiss a model at his World of Tomorrow show," he thought aloud, and I felt like I'd nearly gotten slapped.

"…the Stark Expo? There was one back then?"

"Yeah, that was it. Why?"

"…you missed the one Tony just had," I informed him, and immediately my heart wrenched in my chest. It was like some kind of connection between space and time had appeared between us, just because we were part of the same event, nearly seventy years apart.

"I bet it wasn't any crazier," Rogers insisted, but when I grinned wryly and shook my head he looked at me worriedly. "…was it?"

"I'll find you the footage sometime," was all I dared to say. I doubted he really wanted to watch Howard Stark's two kids flying around in their mechanical suits indirectly causing havoc and mayhem on the Expo grounds, but whatever.

"…maybe you can help me get to speed," Rogers thought after a few moments of silence. "Not history, I've had plenty of time for that, but…tech. Like…there's this company…something fruity…"

"Apple?" I clarified, a little surprised at this sudden change. He'd had time for tech, too, if he was caught up on his history since 1943. Rogers nodded anyway.

"Yeah. I got one of their phones, but, uh…I – I haven't even taken it out of the box."

Thankfully I remembered that, in the event Tony wanted to steal his own Mobile off me – he's taken seven so far – I had a spare that I always kept in a back pocket. This I pulled out and placed easily into Steve's hand.

"Don't bother, you have something better," I informed him briskly. "I guess I should get you equipped with a number and teach you how to use it, huh?"

"…yeah, that'd be…great," he agreed, very nearly beaming at me.

It didn't occur to me that, just maybe, Captain America was trying to flirt with me.


	4. 3: The Famous Idiocy of Tony Stark

**3: The Famous Idiocy of Tony Stark**

So in my complete ignorance of potential flirtation, I walked with Rogers to his dorm on the helicarrier. As we walked, I showed him the general basics of the Stark Mobile: how to call someone, saving the phone number to the directory, using the directory to find said number. Once we were inside his room and seated at a table, I was trying to get through an explanation of text messaging, and, therefore, the history of e-mail. It was even trickier to try and even generally describe the Internet and the fact the Mobile could connect to it for freedom of browsing for information. Forget the countless apps I had converted for the Mobile's usage; trying to talk about those got me more blank looks and a couple of confused brow furrows.

"This is insane," Rogers informed me after I finally gave up on trying to explain apps. I offered a shrug and returned the Mobile to its home screen and passed it to him.

"Well, consider that all cell phones were good for twenty years ago was calling people while on the move," I agreed. "But these days no one's actually using the phone to call, unless you're a businessman and therefore _have_ to make those kinds of calls. I guess I could save time and say that, essentially, you've got a whole computer in the palm of your hand."

"And computers were just coming around when I went under, I think," Rogers murmured, weighing the phone a bit. There was a faraway look in his eye that made me wonder if there was more going on in that head of his than just missing his proper era. "It's almost…overwhelming."

"I can believe it," I told him. "I mean, out for seventy years, the world rolls on, and when you wake up everything's…different."

I could hardly imagine myself or Tony going through the same. What would the future look like in seventy years? Would he or I be able to catch up fast enough to get back to the front edge of development? I doubted I'd be able to, even with all my quick grasp and even Mina to help. Likely Rogers was feeling the same way right now, even though he carefully set his Mobile on the table and offered me a smile.

"…thanks for teaching me," he said, and that weird little flippy-feeling in my stomach came back. What the _hell_.

"Well, you're welcome," I told him, trying to return that smile.

"I guess I still have a lot to learn, though," he admitted, totally honest and humble with zero sarcasm. After a lifetime with Tony, trust me, not getting sarcasm within a day is major.

"Well, maybe when we're not waiting for SHIELD to dig up Loki or the Tesseract I can teach you some more," I offered. "I mean, I still need to show you a _real_ computer –"

I was interrupted by the sudden appearance of bright red on the screen of Rogers' Mobile, and I nearly cursed. I'd been avoiding the subject of Mina and other artificial intelligence – like Jarvis, Tony's valet AI – because I _knew_ he wasn't going to get it. Now I would be forced to explain what exactly she was, especially when she crowed straight from the phone, "Speaking of Loki! SHIELD's got him, Stuttgart, Germany, best get ready you two!"

"…thanks, Mina, thanks a _lot_," I grumbled, though Rogers' honest surprise caught me off guard. "Mina needs her own class to explain…"

"Still impressive," he let me know even as I dug out my Bluetooth so Mina didn't make any more declarations to the general ear. "Does it – uh, _she_ – do that a lot?"

"You could just _ask_," Mina retorted both in my ear and from Rogers' hand. I turned the Bluetooth off so Mina could explain about herself for once and instead focused up for dealing with Loki. Undoubtedly he was going to put up a fight, but my best option in close reach was my backpack suit. The Mark V suit was all the way back in Malibu, still in need of some last repairs from fighting Hammeroids, and my experimental Mark VII, stashed away in the Long Island house Tony and I had grown up in, was nowhere near deployment because I was trying out a new neural linkup. Problem: I didn't have the links without installing myself with some kind of implant to make it work. If it did, it would lead to increased reaction time and speed, and maybe even starting to network _me_ into the satellite networks that Mina used to give me intel. It would free her up to focus on bigger problems, and I could manage more of the suit work.

That was if it worked. And if I had the links ready to install.

"Wonder why Fury didn't bet more than ten bucks," Rogers noted wryly as he stuffed away the Mobile – and I made sure he had the little Bluetooth attachment installed right in his ear – into a pocket.

"Likely he never carries that much himself," I surmised. I'd tried getting Fury to give me change for a five when I was working security in New Mexico and he'd had absolutely nothing in his pockets, at least cash-wise. "Now, I need my pack and then we get to go arrest a crazy demigod."

"…stranger and stranger," he muttered before heading back to the armory where we'd found his equipment. I peeled off to collect my pack and get the plates activated, prying off my helmet for now before heading to the flight deck and loading up with him, a pilot, and Natashalie. Technically I could fly myself, but it was easier this way; saving power for combat was a very useful thing. Instead I closed my eyes and had Mina pipe me pre-fight music through my Bluetooth.

Loki, round two, here I come.

"Trinity, we'll drop you first, wait Loki out up here," Natashalie was telling me a couple hours later as I got ready to jump out of the plane. "You try to find and neutralize him before anyone gets hurt."

"Knowing Loki from that skirmish when he came through, it'll be easier to catch him right _before_ things get messy," I thought aloud, helmet on. "I'll do what I can, let you know when he's making his move."

"Sure you'll be fine down there?" Rogers asked me. After all, compared to his red, white, and blue outfit and his equally-patriotic shield, I was almost obviously understated. I'd made a slight style concession for the Mark VI that I hadn't with my bike-suit, adding in hints of an ultra-dark red that were very nearly black. I'd also snazzed up the cover over the reactor, so that when the suit was idle it was the regular blue-white color, but when activated (like right now) the reactor was filtered such that it gave off a red light. My visor, too, had gone from blue to red, just for the sake of contrast.

"I think I'm gonna fit in better than you, Cap," I informed him with an invisible grin, and he returned it, obviously taking my gentle dig at his outfit in stride. "Okay, Nat, let's do it, send me out."

The rear hatch opened, and Mina started updating my HUD as I jumped out of the plane. I avoided turning on my primary thrusters and thus giving myself away; instead I had Mina slow my descent with thrusters on my calves and occasional bursts from my hand repulsors. It was a nice, smooth landing, firmly in a small plaza just off the main street and the front of the building, excepting for one thing I noticed as I landed: on a security panel near a doorway that was undoubtedly supposed to be closed was a three-legged projector of some kind. I stole over there first, and a quick peek at what it was projecting made my stomach turn. The two dead guards, each with an arrow in the chest, warned me who else was nearby.

"Widow, Trinity, there was a security breach in my landing zone," I reported. "I think Hawkeye and whatever other goons Loki might have on-call are busting in to pick up something inside. Should I investigate?"

"_Loki's the priority_," Natashalie replied, though I heard the strain in her voice. I knew she had history with Barton – what kind, I still wasn't sure – and, therefore, wanted him back with the good guys ASAP as much as I did. "_We can clean up in there later, so move on. There's been an evacuation up front, move in._"

"Copy that," I answered and jogged quietly towards the front of the building. Just off to my left was an open plaza that was filling with terrified civilians, and I followed them back towards the entrance of a marble front.

"…Mina, don't tell me that creepy flash of gold is who I think it is," I moaned right as Mina zoomed in on said flickering golden light. Sure enough, it was Loki, obviously disguised in a suit and scarf, but as he walked I saw that the light itself was shifting around him, making his suit vanish. Replacing it were robes not unlike what he'd worn in New Mexico, but instead of just green and black with flecks of gold, this set had a streaming green cape held up by golden epaulettes, and links of golden metal flashed on his boots. That spear he'd had in New Mexico, too, was changing, from what appeared to be an overdecorated shillelagh to a massive scepter of sorts, as long as he was tall, with the pointy end much bigger than it had been before. The literal crowning piece, though, was a massive helmet that sat easily on his head despite the long horns that curved out and up from his forehead. _Now_ he looked like the Norse legend come to life, crazy identity issues aside.

"Oh, yes, best friend, we have Loki on-scene," Mina replied, telling me what exactly I hadn't wanted to hear. _Sigh_. Maybe she did need a code-scrub at some point soon, just to keep her from getting _too_ smart. "May I recommend flanking him? Could catch him by surprise!"

"Yeah, and he has his clones on almost every other angle," I muttered, watching as Loki penned up the terrified Germans with flickering copies of himself. "Widow, I'm going to try and flank Loki, hopefully he won't start shooting civilians."

"_Let's hope; readying to drop Cap, so you'll have backup soon_."

I moved around the edge of the plaza carefully, watchful in case Barton and his new friends came out in front of me, but always staying alert to Loki's movements as I lined up behind him. He was delivering some kind of speech to the now-kneeling crowd, and I scowled as I got ready to charge in, despite his stepping into the crowd.

I was stopped dead, though, when an elderly man – who, I had no doubt, had been a boy during Hitler's reign – slowly got to his feet.

"Mina, I wanna hear this guy, amp up the sound," I ordered, and she did so without a single quip.

"Not to men like you," the man insisted once he had faced Loki, I guess in response to the order to kneel. I heard Loki chuckle distantly.

"There are no men like me," was the creep's response, making me scowl. As if sensing my expression, the old man raised his chin defiantly towards Loki.

"There are _always_ men like you."

"…look to you elder, people," Loki said, as calm as ever but I knew he was pissed off at that. I was grinding the ball of my right foot into the brick, ready to charge, as he continued, "Let him be an example to you."

"_Now, Andy_!" Mina barked as Loki leveled his spear. I bolted forward in a hard sprint as the scepter fired, but Rogers was a step ahead of me, landing right in front of Loki's would-have-been victim and deflecting the blast back into Loki. Of course, this ruined my sprint because Loki ended up flat on his face, but I got my jets to activate and, with a nice bit of in-air acrobatics I flipped over him and landed next to Rogers.

"Y'know, last time I was in Germany, and there was a man standing over everyone else," Rogers stated evenly, while others stood in shock to see Captain America walking among them again, "we had a bit of a disagreement."

"And he beat the crap out of the guy, too," I added. Loki was already getting back to his feet, grinning viciously despite sounding out of breath.

"The _soldier_," he spat with reference to Rogers. "The man out of time, followed by the armored shadow."

"I'm not the one who's out of time," Rogers answered easily, and as the plane appeared I started waving the civvies to _get the hell out of here_.

"Loki, drop the weapon and stand down!" Natashalie insisted over the plane's PA, but Loki fired a blast up at her voice. Steve hurled his shield at Loki, catching him off-guard, and I dove in to push him down into the ground. I landed and started clearing more people out while Steve brawled with Loki, despite getting hammered fiercely. Obviously he wasn't used to fighting someone close to his out speed and strength, despite all appearances to the contrary.

"Steve, here!" I barked, and just before Loki could hook away the shield I fired a repulsor blast towards Steve. He caught it in the center of his shield and aimed it at Loki, sending him off his feet despite a recovery that was definitely superhuman. Steve threw his shield again, but this time Loki was ready and whacked it away casually. I shot in between them and tried to rip the scepter out from Loki's hands. Before I could actually flip him over my head, Loki managed to sweep my feet out from under me and pinned my back with one foot while he set the butt end of his scepter against the back of Steve's head.

"_Kneel_," he spat down at us.

"Not today!" Steve snapped, ducking out from under the spear and punching Loki hard enough to make him stagger off me. It didn't help him against the whack Loki put on his cheek, sending Steve to the ground. I had already rolled away and was about to – literally – fly at Loki when…

"_Hey, sis, miss me_?"

All who do not yet know, or missed my previous introductions, this would so happen to be one Anthony Edward Stark, AKA Tony, AKA Iron Man, AKA one of the biggest jerks in the world. But, as he's my elder brother, this makes him _my_ biggest jerk in the world, and he undoubtedly proved it as he somehow got the plane's PA to blare the chorus of AC/DC's _Shoot to Thrill_ – which I had taken to calling his theme song, since he'd entered the Expo on that number – and easily scored a landing kick into Loki's chest, sending him against the stairs that led out of the circular area where Steve and I had, until then, been fighting Loki.

"Actually, honestly, I didn't," I answered as I got up and took my time brushing myself off. Tony put a rain check on replying as he raised his arms, popping out most of his upper-body arsenal to aim at Loki.

"Make a move, Reindeer Games."

"…that's the best thing you can come up with," I groused, coming up on Tony's left. Steve wasn't far behind me, shield on his arm, and, faced with apparently-worse odds than previously, Loki penitently raised his hands. As he did, the "battle armor" vanished just as it had appeared, and he was back in the same robes he'd been wearing after coming through his portal from space. Once he'd obviously surrendered, Tony closed up his weaponry.

"Well, I know _I'm_ loved," Tony said crisply. "Saying you didn't miss me, criticize my quips…"

"Yes, I love you so much that I have to make sure you say the right thing," I answered angelically.

"…Mister Stark," Steve said by way of greeting once Natashalie had landed and we were both getting Loki locked up into a seat. I did my best to avoid gauging Tony's reply – a semi-cool "Captain" – but, of course, I couldn't. Tony, much like me, had idolized Steve when we were kids (Dad wasn't that warm to either of us, though he'd been moderately better towards Tony), so obviously there was shock, awe, and maybe a bit of excitement that Tony was choking down in just that one word. Tony didn't do fanboying like Coulson, but he definitely did respect.

"So be honest, Andy, you missed me, didn't you?" Tony asked after he and Steve loaded in. He'd gotten his helmet off to set on a console, so I couldn't miss that teasing light in his eyes that was both loving and annoying. I took my own helmet off so I could twist my lips into a wry smile.

"Honestly? Really, truly, honestly?"

"Really truly honestly did you miss me?"

"No."

"…_what_?!"

"I didn't either, if you were going to ask," Natashalie added, and I choked back a snicker as Tony glanced over at her disbelievingly. Thankfully the pilot was ignoring us and had the plane taking off.

"Just great. All three women in my life hate my guts," he complained while taking up a post leaning near the cockpit. I sat down next to him, Steve across from me, and Loki far off to my left. I knew he was going to be listening like the creep he was, but I didn't care.

"When Coulson suggested you'd be late with homework, I didn't think you'd still have incredibly weird timing," I retorted after shaking out my hair. Tony shrugged a little.

"Well, I was working, and you missed the arc-reactor at Stark Tower going online –"

"I was busy with super-secret-spy stuff. Speaking of which, I thought you didn't qualify for this sort of thing."

I was referring, of course, to the now-scrapped Avengers Initiative fronted by Fury but shot down by whoever his magical bosses are. Whereas I qualified with shining colors, Tony had been turned down, not for his Iron Man stuff, but for his own troublesome character defects. He had, though, been kept as a consultant – a fact he reminded me of – and I got a feeling he was going to be put in the same lab as Banner. _Hell_.

"Your likely partner's going to need to be put on a sedative regimen," I grumbled, starting to rub my temples. See, this is what being in charge for a year without Tony messing things up did to me; I started thinking about how people fit together and tried to make sure things went smoothly. Obviously, Tony loves being a chaotic factor, so I was already foreseeing big, green messes and explosions on the helicarrier and Tony getting smashed to bits.

"That's not nice," Tony chided me, but Natashalie actually came to my rescue.

"He has a condition we're hoping to _not_ aggravate…sedatives are the least of his problems," she sighed, but Tony chewed on it for a bit.

"If that's the case, go ahead and put me on the sedatives."

"…hey, you're not suicidal," I thought aloud. It honestly was a good idea, considering Tony's curiosity concerning the Hulk and SHIELD _really_ needing Banner to stay, well, Banner. "So using sedatives on you is totally okay!"

"…see what I have to live with?" Tony commented to Steve and Natashalie. Steve was hiding a grin, looking between the two of us, and I sensed a definite eye roll from Natashalie.

"I know exactly how you live, Stark, in case you've forgotten."

"…not cool, Natashalie."

"I thought only your sister only called me that."

"Where do you think I _learned_ it?"

Loki was starting to pay too much attention for his own good, and I straightened up a bit when I noticed his gaze fixed firmly on us.

"Kids, okay, that's enough," I intervened. "We've got a guest, and I need some rest."

Okay, the rest was a lie. I knew Tony was going to want to poke at Steve, as he usually did with unfamiliar people, and if he did it in front of me I'd undoubtedly get offended. To confirm this, Tony tossed me an angelic smile before turning to the others in mock seriousness.

"Listen to the boss-lady."

"…since when was I the boss-lady?" I asked, taking the obvious bait.

"Since you started bossing me around."

Cue another one of those angelic smiles Tony could always turn on and escape trouble. Of course, it never quite worked on me.

"I've always bossed you around, because you're a nutcase," I replied smoothly, and I got Steve to snort weakly, obviously trying not to laugh. Of course, Tony hates it when my jibes top his, so he carried on.

"No genius without a touch of madness!"

"Okay, sure, I'm the genius, you're the madness."

Tony scowled a little, obviously realizing that I was going to outscore him and get more laughs – honestly, Steve was still fighting back snickers and if I was seeing Natashalie's reflection right she was grinning ever so slightly. I nodded a little in victory, offering my own angelic smile at Tony.

"So, boss-lady needs a nap," I declared with a sigh. "No one let Loki out. Or let Tony be an idiot."

"…not cool," Tony grumbled, but I shushed him and settled in for a catnap. Of course, I didn't get a nice quiet one – Steve tried to engage Tony in a relatively-serious conversation and got called a "Cap-sicle" in reply – but I was completely prevented from any sort of relaxation when the plane shook under the sudden rumble of a thunderstorm. But I had the feeling this wasn't just a sudden natural thunderstorm because Tony was getting his helmet on and Loki looked…nervous.

"What, scared of a little lightning?" I asked scathingly, and Loki just leveled me with a look.

"I'm not _overly_ fond of what follows," he retorted, and that feeling of mine got worse. Tony had opened up the rear hatch, and I scrabbled to get on my helmet, along with Steve, just in case of trouble and if that briefing I'd glossed after joining SHIELD about the New Mexico town was accurate.

I was nearly jolted off my feet when a _person_ landed on the hatch, with shoulder-length blonde hair and clothes styled almost like Loki's, with the billowing cape and the predominance of leather instead of regular fabric. Tony starting powering up a repulsor to shoot him back, but the newcomer suddenly hurled a hammer into him. I was caught by Tony's extended arm, and I looked up just in time to see Hammer-Man grab up Loki, whirl the hammer around, and leap out of the plane.

"…now there's that guy," Tony grunted as he got to his feet.

"Another Asgardian?" Nat asked, flipping switches and obviously trying to get the plane ready to go pursue Hammer-Man. No, not that; _Thor_. As in the Norse god of thunder that had been the reason that New Mexico town had gotten leveled in the first place.

"If he kills or frees Loki, we're not finding the Tesseract again!" I insisted. Tony was of a similar mind, obviously, because he was already at the hatch by the time Steve was on his feet.

"Stark, what're you doing?!" Steve asked, startled by Tony's obvious decision to act first and think later. "We need a plan of attack!"

"I have a plan," Tony retorted sharply. "_Attack_."

With that he jumped out of the plane. I swallowed a groan and just shook my head. Classic Tony for you, always moving in to blow stuff up.

"And who is the one person who can keep him in line?" I sighed, moving to jump after him, even as Steve snatched up a parachute. "Catch up when you can, in case he's being suicidal again."

"Don't worry about me, just find Loki and make sure he doesn't escape!" Steve insisted, and I gave him a salute before falling backwards out of the plane. So long as Tony didn't so happen to blow up Loki, I could live with him again.


	5. 4: Verbal Sparring

**4: Verbal Sparring**

I saw the flash of Tony's thrusters as I dropped through the clouds towards some mountainous forest, though when he went plunging through the trees – and likely taking Thor with him – I spotted Loki being left too alone for my liking. Besides, knowing Tony, he'd want to get a share of a fight he missed out on, not to mention he doesn't necessarily like getting showed up when he was supposed to win. So when a flash of lightning came down on a clearing just below Loki, I dropped to the ground behind him, leaving my faceplate down and watching the show for a bit before the boys started brawling.

"I don't know about you, creep," I told him once Tony and Thor were spinning around among the trees, "but I'm pretty sure you'll get a better view of my brother being an idiot from the plane."

"I quite like the one I have, but thank you," Loki answered with an audible smirk, turning to look at me from where he was leaning against an outcropping. I crossed my arms, remembering his great like of speechmaking. He didn't have one immediately ready to jump into, so I crossed my arms at him, letting my faceplate "scowl" for me, even though technically it can't do that.

"So, what, you _like_ watching him getting beat up by a guy at least twice his size?" I asked. The smile Loki offered me made me feel uneasy. Sure, he didn't have his spear, but I knew he was still dangerous; those flashing little blades he threw in New Mexico, after all, had to still be on his person, even though they weren't that much of a threat to me armored up as I was.

"I merely find it amusing he thinks he can _win_," Loki answered, and I had to silently give him that point. "Mortals' determination in the face of certain failure is…humorous, at best."

"Ah," I muttered, "hence the ant-boot metaphor. I still think you're all talk."

Loki got to his feet at that, surveying me coolly. Those crazy-man-blue eyes were creeping me out, and even more so as he smiled at me. The last couple of times I talked to bad guys, only one wasn't so off his rocker to make me worried. This guy was coming very close to just making me mad. I was proved right when he answered, "Of course you do. Anything that defies the tightly-grasped view of your world is nothing more than words."

"Then you don't know much about anything, do you?" I shot back.

"Yet I am not the one accusing others of being…'all talk'," Loki feinted. Fine. I nodded a little in concession, but still. He was the one trying to grind all of us under his boot heel, and if he set himself so high over us, then why even go through all the maneuvers?

"Well, then," I deftly noted, "maybe while the boys iron out their differences, you tell me where the Tesseract is."

Obviously my attempt at a smooth change of subject dismally failed, especially because Loki looked unimpressed.

"_That_ was a skillful transition."

Oh, look, my language is spoken beyond Earth. That's nice to know.

"I do my best and, no, I don't do comedy tours."

"How am I to be threatened by you when all you do is jest?" Loki spat, and I decided to drop any attempts at more battles of wit. It was time to drop the rapier and go for the gun.

"Maybe I joke to screw with you," I growled, "and I'm actually damn serious. So how about you tell me where the Tesseract is or we follow up on the scrap you wanted back when you arrived."

Loki's smirk became dark, making me tense, wary for anything he might pull. He was, after all, a master illusionist, and I didn't doubt he had a good grasp of psychology to make it work. He took a step towards me, almost contemplatively, surveying me like he was looking for a weakness to strike into. I was just braced for his attack, whenever it came.

"…for a people so _averse_ to war, you seem rather keen to start one with me."

"Because you made it _personal_," I answered, measuring in just enough venom into my voice so he knew I wasn't kidding around now. "It was _personal_ when you nearly mind-controlled me and Barton saved my ass. It was _personal _when you came to my world and threatened to take it over, and so help me it'll be especially _personal_ when you start killing people I know by first name."

Loki surveyed me quietly after my declaration, enough for me to get a glance down at the trees. Thor had Tony by both hands, though I saw Tony getting ready to fire a repulsor in Thor's face. I really hoped Steve got down there to break that up, because I couldn't keep Loki distracted for long.

"…how quaint you are," he murmured calmly, dragging back my attention. "Your rulers do this to your kind every day, and yet no one raises a voice in complaint. You do take issue with me because I do not hide my intent with honeyed words and sweet promises."

_No one complains because the news outlets don't show the complainers_, I silently retorted, but obviously I couldn't say that to Loki's face. Either he'd twist this into an ideological debate or bring it to bear on me. After all, I was related to one of the big swinging political interests on a global stage. I let Loki keep talking, watching him as he continued, "How many of them do as I do? A few? Half? I say _all_. Those in authority only crave _power_, they are not concerned with your well-being. Why should you expect any different from _me_? I only differ in offering comfort in my openness."

"The same openness you offered to Barton, and Selvig?" I snarled. "I call that slavery."

"At least I am honest about it."

"I'd rather have a dishonest politician over my head than an honest murderer," I spat. At least politicians could get their power taken away, democratically or not. Loki, tough, was going to be a different matter entirely. I stole a glance down at the fighting ground and spotted Steve there, obviously trying to talk Thor and Tony down, and I knew he'd need at least some help. "Sorry, but I've got other things to handle than psychoanalyzing you."

Loki didn't quite seem to follow my word choice, but he definitely followed my oncoming fist when I tried to knock him out. He sidestepped and smirked, but he didn't know my follow-up that shot up under his jaw that sent him sprawling over the rocks. Finally. I turned away from Loki and sailed down to drop down next to Steve. That was especially bad timing; Thor had whacked Tony off to the side with his hammer, and was in the air, about to bring the same hammer down onto Steve. I lunged between them and managed to get a double blast from my repulsors into his gut. Thankfully Mina had calibrated them with enough power to push Thor _away_ from me and Steve, and I sighed in relief when Thor crashed back into the ground.

"Everyone just _stop it right now_!" I barked, Mina popping my faceplate up so everyone could see me. _God_ I hate men sometimes. "Obviously we all want Loki and the Cube, so doesn't fighting each other seem a little counter-productive?!"

"Hurts, too," Tony added in sideways, and I shot him a glare.

"So how about we get Loki locked up and get back on the damn plane?! God, you _men_! I was having a good nap and _everything_!"

Thankfully, none of them argued with me, so I called Nat down while Thor went to collect Loki. He didn't seem too pleased to see a giant bruise forming on Loki's jaw, but he did manage to apologize for interfering with us getting Loki somewhere he could get grilled. Obviously he didn't say that, but I'm pretty sure that's what he was saying. Steve looked unhappy with the fact I'd put them all in their place, and to make sure Tony was equally repentant I cuffed him on the head, though he still had his helmet on.

"Yes, Andy, I love you, too…"

"Stop being crazy," I ordered him. "I thought we were over this."

Review: last year's Monaco Grand Prix and Tony's birthday party. I wasn't keen on meeting up with the jerkwad again so soon. But, with Tony being Tony, he just gave me one of his 'I am totally absolved from anything I do because I know you love me' smiles.

"Never."

"And this is how life goes on," I sighed, trying to hide my smirk for the sake of strangers being around, but Tony didn't seem to care. He's like that sometimes.

"Come on, admit it, you love me."

"…sadly, yes," I conceded before hugging him tight. He hugged back fiercely, though he didn't _have_ to kiss my head so loudly. I'm pretty sure my face nearly caught on fire, especially because now the giant Asgardian with a hammer was smirking at us. "Tony, stop embarrassing me…"

"That's what big brothers are _for_!" Tony insisted, and something about that made me uneasy. Thor and Loki, after all, were brothers, and obviously Loki didn't enjoy being showed up by Thor.

"Sure they are," I told him.

"You know you'd be completely miserable without me."

Dear God, Tony, don't remind me.

"True, but your lab partner was kinda looking forward to a lack of crazy."

"I'm not crazy when I work…"

"You have _quirks_."

"Quirks do _not_ equal _crazy_…"

I gave him a Look that I knew could always make him do what I asked, only implying the 'pretty-please-with-sugar-on-top' aspect. Tony twisted his lips wryly when he saw it.

"…fine, I'll behave," he told me in that tone I _knew_ meant he was going to do the exact opposite. Only Pepper could make him behave at least like a regular human being.

"…one of you has _got_ to be crazy," Steve decided to say, and I looked over at him with a shrug.

"It's either him or the both of us, I think."

"Definitely both," Tony added with a grin.

"Tony, I'm not the one who decided to drive in the Grand Prix last year…"

"I'm over that."

"You'd better be…"

Getting back to the helicarrier and handing Loki over to a security detail was like part of a nightmare starting to end. Sure, Loki had woken back up by then, his bruise healed – damn him – and smirking like he was a man with a plan. I had a big bad feeling as he got escorted off to his cell, but, of course, I had other things to worry about. Fury wanted to talk to our newest guest (meaning Loki), though Tony paused to talk to Coulson and went off with him to get out of the suit. Mina closed up my travel suit while Steve, Natashalie, Thor, and I went for the bridge. Bruce met us there, and it was in short order that we were all soon settled around the conference table, watching Fury talk to Loki. Loki, of course, spewed threats and crazy-man talk, but thankfully it was Bruce, and not me, that broke the tension.

"He kinda grows on you, doesn't he?"

"He'll try to wind us up, is what he's doing," Steve gently put in, though he had on a face that meant business. "Which means we've got to focus on what he's planning. Thor, what's his play?"

"…he has an army," Thor answered, though obviously he didn't like saying so, "called the Chitauri. They are not of Asgard, or any world known."

"Space aliens," I interjected. "Fantastic. So how does he get them here to pull off the global domination plan?"

"He has to be planning on opening another portal," Bruce said. "Which is why he needed Erik Selvig."

Apparently, Thor knew Selvig, duh. So this was now personal for him, too. I stewed a little, listening distantly to Bruce and Steve figuring whether to focus on Loki or on what he was up to. Thankfully, Tony was the one who seemed to know what the item Hawkeye stole – a large sample of iridium – was necessary. I just did my best to keep breathing while everyone else seemed to start raising hackles at each other. What the _hell_ was going on?

"Mina, I want you to keep track on any sort of signals coming from Loki's scepter," I muttered into my Bluetooth while Steve suggested Tony and Bruce start examining the thing in hopes of finding the Cube. "Just in case it can cause some kind of mental interference on top of mind control."

"Can do, and I'll warn you if that signal gets strong enough to trigger problems," Mina agreed. "Also, Jarvis just got inserted into the SHIELD mainframe; I think Tony's getting too curious for his own good."

I swallowed down a curse. Since Tony was only a consultant and I was an actual agent with a nice deep security clearance, I knew what Tony was going to find: the program that had been chosen over the Avengers Initiative, Phase 2, which used energy taken from the Tesseract to create ultra-powerful weapons to defend against, say, space aliens set on us by a crazy demigod. I had Mina copy the designs and put them into her deepest encryption, just in case of this exact situation, but if Tony got his hands on them it might lead to sparks that could fan into an all-out blaze.

Which would be the perfect cover for Loki to try and escape.

By then everyone was splitting up to handle other things, and I quickly got up, pretending I knew exactly what was going on, and followed Bruce and Tony to their lab. I made sure to come up close to Bruce first, though.

"Just be careful of him," I warned with a nod to Tony. "He's been interested in other-you ever since the news reports about Harlem and Culver came out."

"I've got it under control, don't worry," Bruce assured me with a faint grin. I didn't trust it for a second, but what could I do?

"You say that, but then you don't…"

"Andy, what, come on, you don't trust me?" Tony asked, even flinging an arm about Bruce's shoulders. Sigh. I left them alone in the lab, and I couldn't help but grumble to myself. I needed to hit something.

Especially if things were going to get out of control on account of my suddenly-paranoid big brother.


	6. 5: The Captain is a Girl's Best Friend 2

**5: The Captain is a Girl's Best Friend, Part II**

My usual spot in my usual gym on the helicarrier was taken by Steve, who was driving his fists into a sandbag hanging from a ceiling girder. There was a whole row of them set up next to him, and I didn't necessarily want to know the reason. Still, I figured maybe he needed someone to talk to while he worked out whatever was eating at him, and despite the doubtful wisdom behind the thought I came up behind his bag and dug my fingers into the sides, holding it steady despite his even hits. Whatever slight motion had been going on halted completely, and I absorbed a couple blows through my arms before the pounding rhythms stopped. I leaned my head over right around the same time Steve did, and I managed to give him a bit of a smile.

"…heya," I said, and I was immediately kicking myself for how completely _stupid_ that sounded. "Figured you needed someone to hold steady."

"…appreciate it," Steve replied, though he sounded remotely unnerved by something. Me? Loki? I didn't know, and I decided I didn't want to know.

"Just don't hit me, okay?" I asked, doing my best to work on some levity to defuse the tension he was giving off. "That'd be counterproductive."

"I don't hit girls."

"Gentlemanly of you, but further counterproductive. I'm holding the bag."

"How about I try not to miss?" Steve asked with a very, very faint smile. Ah, my humor was getting to him, good.

"Or don't plow your fist straight through," I added with my own grin while Steve got ready to get back to his workout. I held on while he pounded into the bag, and I was trying really, really hard not to let go for a moment to get my suit on, just for the extra durability in the holding. Guy could throw a hell of a punch.

"…so you knew my dad?" I decided to ask after I let him go a couple rounds without getting thrown onto my back. Also, it was likely a safer question than asking about Mom, if he even remembered Mom. He paused to breathe and collect his thoughts, but kept going as he answered.

"Sure did."

"…what was he like? We, uh, weren't on speaking terms."

Cue my personal understatement alarm. Steve didn't notice and put in a few more hits before stepping back a little. I let go so I could watch his expression, try to gauge what he thought and felt about Dad.

"…smart, but crazy."

"Me-and-Tony crazy, or just, y'know, regular-guy crazy?"

Steve considered it for a few moments, then said, "Way-too-much-technical-talk-for-any-normal-person crazy."

I swallowed a snicker at that, because I knew exactly what that was like; that was Tony to the core, just about. I informed him of that, but added, "I keep things as simple as possible."

"…simple is good," Steve noted in pure understatement, and the most absurd thing jumped into my head and fell out of my mouth.

"Remind me to never take you to a Starbucks, then…"

"…what's Starbucks?"

This is a guy who is roughly aware of history and tech for the past seventy years, since he was in a semi-coma that whole time, and wasn't let out enough to discover Starbucks. Note to self: Maybe take him there sometime.

"It's a coffeeshop chain, pretty good but a little overexpensive," I tried clarifying. "You'd have to make about thirty decisions in a split second just for one cup of coffee."

"Why that many?" Steve asked, totally bemused by the idea. I had to hide a smirk as I prepped up a longer and usually mental rundown of the choices one faces at Starbucks, and just for coffee alone:

"Tall, grande, venti, blonde, medium, dark, hot, iced, whipped cream or no, espresso shot, yes or no, syrup yes or no, flavor of syrup if yes –"

"Stop, stop, please…" Steve begged, but he was grinning anyway. Likely he had a good comeback. "So what about out-of-time soldiers who just…want coffee?"

"One of three sizes, one of three fresh-brewed blends," I replied with an innocent smile. No, I've never worked at Starbucks, in case you were wondering. Steve considered it for a moment before shaking his head.

"Yeah, no thanks."

I snickered weakly anyway and let him get back to pounding away, and I knew that if I tried to bring up Mom or Dad that might lead to bad memories for him. I felt like Steve was already mulling over the past, though, because his punches got harder and faster and even though I held the bag steady I could feel each contact vibrate up my arms and into my shoulders. Thankfully, he didn't just lay into the bag and send it flying with me under it, and soon Steve was leaned up against the front, hands nearly against mine as he hung onto the bag. I sighed a little and managed to let go, starting to rub out my aching muscles.

"…ow," I complained. "Nothing broken, but still…"

"…sorry," Steve muttered as I came around to the front of the bag. He looked exhausted, but not from his workout; just from everything that had happened and everything he had missed out on. To be fair, I felt a little sorry for him; there was no way he was ever going to get that time back, unless some miracle flung him back to 1943 and he was able to not get trapped in the ice. I knew he needed to get distracted from those thoughts and rapped firmly on my reactor.

"Don't worry; I've had way worse."

Steve looked up when he heard the tapping and blinked to see where my fingers had struck under my shirt, which was effectively covering the glow of my arc-reactor. At least I did have on a sports bra, cut at a reasonable height so he didn't get uncomfortable if that sort of thing made him uneasy, so I easily pulled off my shirt to reveal the arc-reactor dug firmly into my sternum.

"Both me and Tony got in a bad accident," I related as Steve straightened up to examine the reactor without touching. "He was showing off a new missile system in Afghanistan, I was dragged along…we got blown up."

"…you're not…undead, are you?" Steve asked, and I seriously wondered if he was aware of any of the whole zombie culture floating around out there. I still managed to laugh, even though he did look honestly concerned.

"No, definitely not a zombie," I told him before getting serious again. "Just…badly injured. The blast sent…shrapnel, right, deep into my chest. Nearly punctured my heart. Most of the bits got pulled out, but some…well, they're too close to remove safely. Just leaving them would kill me. This –"

I tapped again at the reactor.

"– keeps them from killing me outright. Same deal with Tony."

"…I'm sorry," Steve said in sympathy at hearing the story, as simplified as it was. He didn't need to know about Stane, Ten Rings, or anything to do with the suits. "It must be painful."

"Only if someone pulls it," I told him as I got my shirt back on.

"…you don't have to worry about that with me," Steve murmured.

"Good. I like being able to trust people."

"Likewise. That's why I like being trustworthy."

Another stupidly-absurd thought took the express lane from my brain to my tongue.

"I like it when people _think_ they know who I am, but then I do something that _totally_ surprises them. Keeps life interesting, you see."

Brain, what kind of dumb, Tony-like thing was that to say? Steve looked just as bewildered.

"…and what does that mean?"

Great, I actually had to try and justify it. Thanks, little-bit-of-Tony-in-me, thanks a _lot_.

"…depending how I initially act, people get an initial idea about me," I thought aloud, puzzling this out to myself. "But when I do something that seems out of my character but isn't, well, they realize they were wrong from the start when it comes to me."

"…well I hope I'm not wrong from the start," Steve told me kindly, and I felt my face flushing a little. Okay, Stark, you got yourself into this mess, get out of it.

"And who do you think I am?" I asked while I stretched a little. Steve thought on it for a bit before he made his answer.

"I think you're a decent lady," he insisted. "Honest, brave."

"Excluding that I'm not a lady…"

"You're not?"

"…do I look like a lady to you?" I asked, motioning to myself. I mean, let's face it, I was in clothes that, in his time, were set aside for housework and privacy: jeans, my favorite boots, a t-shirt and sports bra. My hair was a total mess because I'd neither showered nor brushed it for at least a couple days, and, simply, I just didn't _feel_ like a lady. Ladylike was Mom; I definitely wasn't channeling anything like Mom right now.

"…no, but that doesn't change anything," Steve insisted. "You're still a lady, so…so you deserve special respect."

"…but I'm not a lady," I tried to retort, but Steve fixed me with those vivid eyes that, while not intensely-pure blue like Thor's, were still bright and sharp and glued me to the spot.

"You are to me."

It was hard to talk after that declaration, and I felt so awkwardly flustered that I moved back behind the bag, and Steve started pounding into it again. He saw me as a lady? I wasn't so refined, or so well-mannered most times, to be considered at all lady-like, especially if he was looking at me in a 1940's-type lens. But he couldn't be; if there was anything Captain America definitely wasn't, it was dishonest to women. I don't even know if he can lie, from the old comics and the times I'd played as him with Tony.

Of course, since I wasn't chatting to keep Steve from busting the bag open, he did. When that punch came, it was like getting an anvil to the gut – or Hulk's fist, which I have actually experienced. Though the bag didn't fly off the chain, sand dumped out at Steve's feet, and the sheer force I'd just taken in my solar plexus sent me staggering back, doubled over and very nearly forcing up what little I'd eaten before Stuttgart. Steve started a bit when he came out of his reverie and seemed to remember I was back there, because he pulled his fist out from the hole and quickly came over to try and help me stay upright.

"I – I'm sorry, I – I didn't mean to…" he stammered in shock, while I just tried to get my wind back. Oh, _ow_…

"…don' worry about it," I coughed out eventually. "Didn't break anything…."

"I still hurt you, come on," Steve insisted, scooping me up like I weighted nothing. Of course, I started objecting even though my gut hurt like hell.

"Nothing's broken, there's no bleeding," I tried to argue. "It'll just be a giant bruise, it's _fine_…"

"You're _sure_?" Steve asked, and I nodded firmly. He didn't seem so confident and tried to insist on getting me down to the medical doctors, but I talked him out of it and soon ended up back on my feet.

"I'm still sorry," he repeated while I straightened up and finally felt the ability to breathe again.

"I'll live," I insisted. "Had worse, remember?"

I rapped smartly on my reactor, and Steve gave me a slightly sheepish look.

"Okay, true, but…sorry."

"And you're not going to stop apologizing until I accept it, so, yes, apology accepted," I told him briskly, but I didn't expect the smile that appeared on his face. You know how I insisted something like this has never happened to me before? Well, on seeing that smile, that weird hot-and-cold-simultaneously feeling came up again, complete with a flopping of my bruised stomach and maybe even a bit of red coming into my face.

"That's all I needed to hear," Steve assured me, and for a moment I wondered if he was going to come closer and actually maybe kiss me. He certainly got closer, his eyes still fixed on mine, but he moved past me, collecting a broom and a dustpan to clean up the sand himself. It was one of those weirdly surreal moments where you feel like something was supposed to happen, but because of your own ineptitude in the situation what you expected to happen totally didn't. It was exactly what I was feeling as I crept out of the gym and stopped at my own dorm, hoping to catch some sleep but I couldn't.

In recent history, I've been "out" with two guys. One of them was Rhodey, mostly because he thought there were feelings and Tony sort of made us try it out. In reality, though, Rhodey ended up being more like a second brother to me, and so we stopped really "going out" in a serious sense. To be fair, I don't count the first guy, a young soldier named Moreau who had just barely gotten out of the attack in Afghanistan, thought, obviously, with lesser injuries than me and Tony. We only went out once before he was redeployed, and I haven't heard from him since.

So why did this…_thing_ I felt towards Steve so different? Me and Rhodey had kissed a couple of times, sometimes quite nicely, but thinking back on it it was just remotely awkward and uncomfortable since, well, Rhodey's kinda like another brother to me. A much saner one. I'd never kissed Moreau, so I can't take that measure. It's not like I'd asked to be kissed either, but that weird surreal moment where I had _wanted_ Steve to kiss me? It felt like a bit of a letdown.

I sat on my bed and forced myself to stop thinking about it. Maybe he'd had the thought but knew there were other things to do. And for all I knew Loki was working on playing mind tricks with all of us, and I had to stay on my guard. I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths. I had to let this go, just for now. We had to find the Cube. Tony and Banner were undoubtedly working to trace that gamma signal, when Jarvis wasn't busy hacking SHIELD and likely getting jabbed by Mina, but there was another avenue I was pretty sure Natashalie would go after soon. Distracting Tony wasn't my first option so I threw myself into the shower and changed into clean clothes. _Then_ I finally crashed for about two hours of sleep.

When I woke up, I was going to go have a few words with Loki before Nat could, and hopefully figure out his move before we all got caught in whatever trap he had spun for us.


	7. 6: The Trickster and the Shadow

**A/N:** After a too-long hiatus (blame college), I am back with more! Seeing as _Iron Man 3_ will be out in a month or so, I need to get this done and set up for Phase 2! Hope everyone's ready for the ride!

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**6: The Trickster and the Shadow**

"Of all the people who could have come, I did not expect you."

I frowned darkly through the glass barrier that separated me and Loki. He was firmly locked in a cell that, originally, had been designed as containment for the Hulk, in case he got too dangerous. I doubted it would have held Hulk for long, much less led to his death by thirty thousand feet, but for Loki it was good enough for me. I crossed my arms and regarded him as coolly as possible, even though his back was to me.

"And considering you were going 'kneel bitches' back in Germany, you _really_ don't look like someone holding all the cards right now," I replied in just as deadpan a tone. Loki turned to glance at me with a smirk, but I held my ground.

"And why should I?" he asked, gesturing around his cell amiably. "After all, I am so thoroughly contained in this…prison."

"'Cause you don't look like the guy to make things up as you go. Unless, y'know, all the planning and deliberation flew out the window when I punched you."

Loki chuckled at my sarcasm, and I dared to play along with a little smirk of my own. Of course Loki was dangerous. Of course he could probably freak me out. But I wasn't going to let him beat me in a game that was going to have everything I cared about put on the line. And then some. I wasn't going to let him catch onto that, though. He surveyed me quietly with his sharply-blue eyes that didn't seem quite right.

"You _would_ like that, wouldn't you," he noted softly.

"Now why would I? Seeing as you have all the answers. Enlighten me."

I sat down in a chair, turning it around backwards before settling to watch him. Loki was watching me as he sat on his cot on the far side of the cell, surveying me like a sculptor would a block of stone. Or a crazy brain surgeon keen to look inside my skull.

"It would be a _quick_ victory, to be sure," was his opening comment.

"No it wouldn't."

My insistence surprised him, and I kept my smirk in check. I could play this game.

"And what makes you believe that?"

"No plan makes you unpredictable," I elaborated carefully. If I was going to get a plan out of him he couldn't necessarily be suspecting of it. I learned this technique from one of the best. "If we can't predict what you're gonna do, you get the advantage. We respond without knowing the full board of the game."

Loki seemed slightly stunned by that, so I leaned forward in my chair and added, "And not even a comment on the fact we're really face-to-face for the first time."

He made one single chuckle, transforming his face into a glowing, confident smile. So he had a move to make.

"You _are_ unlike what I expected," Loki complimented me, that smile never quite leaving his face. I frowned a little at that.

"And what _did_ you expect?"

"…the same baseless arrogance as your brother," he replied, and my frown darkened. So that was what he was up to.

"You figured I was his clone, well, that shows what you know about me."

"What else is one to expect?" Loki argued. "When for all your life you've been compared to him, forced to put him on a pedestal for all your life as your _model_ of what it is to be a Stark. Because you were never _worthy_ to be accepted as your father's own child!"

My chest clenched at his words, even though I was trying not to let them reach me. I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of knowing he'd gotten to me.

"I don't care if I'm worthy," I retorted as briskly as I could. "As a matter of fact, I couldn't care less what you think of me."

"But there is someone who _did_."

"And he's dead."

"Yet it haunts you still," Loki hissed. "You have let it consume and destroy you."

"Funny you say that while I'm standing right here."

"Yet that wound lingers, doesn't it? Festering."

"Let's stop playing 'get in Andy's head' for thirty seconds," I snarled, my grip on my chair tight. I wasn't going to let him get to me, come on, Stark, you can get this. "Where. Is. The Cube?"

Loki replied with an innocent shrug and hands spread from his sides, palms up, in a classic 'I don't know'. I didn't believe it for a second.

"I don't have it."

"That's obvious. I'm not _that_ stupid."

"And yet you've no idea how simple, how _stupid_, your minds can be!" Loki laughed derisively, and I clenched my jaw. This guy was seriously starting to damage my calm.

"You seem to like insulting my mind."

"Only because it is worth the insult."

"Or maybe it's the only one willing to go toe-to-toe with yours."

"Willing? Or foolish?"

"Maybe a bit of both, I can't tell."

Loki snorted softly, definitely a contained laugh, as his smile reappeared on his face. Okay, this could be going better, but not bad. Yet.

"No, I find it is a mind smothered by the greatness of another," he spat slowly, his gaze locked on me, keen and vicious. "Why should the glory all be his, if you are so _worthy_ as to receive the same favor, and did as much to win it? Instead, you were rejected…found _wanting._"

For a moment I wondered if he was talking about me or himself. I had a scary feeling that it was a close toss-up as to who his subject really was. Loki himself stood up and breezed towards the window slowly.

"…I don't think there is much difference between you and I," Loki said as he approached the glass that kept us scant inches apart. "None at all, in fact. You merely pretend we are so."

"And yet I'm not the one in a cage," I retorted, getting to my feet to meet his gaze. "Not to mention I think we're different on a much more basic level. Maybe my father didn't like me. But at least I know who I am and what made me that way. Can you say the same?"

"Oh, I can," Loki replied, but there was a coldness in his reply that made me think otherwise. I dared a smirk of my own.

"I think not. That's why you're gonna fail. You're building yourself up on hate and confusion and all because of that you'll end up in a deep, dark hole."

"…are all mortals so arrogant?" Loki asked, his brows folding in mock confusion. "Or is it only magnified in your family?"

Okay, good, he was losing steam, if he could only think of insults to throw at me in hopes of a response. I straightened myself up, ready to finish this once and for all.

"As _greatly_ as I enjoy debating with you, there's still only one thing I wanna know," I sighed, brandishing one finger to make my point clear. "So either you can tell me, or we keep going in circles until we get our own answer."

"If I tell you, it only accelerates the inevitable."

"Yeah, well, _inevitable_ isn't always carved in stone. Something will slip through your fingers and there won't be a thing you can do to stop it."

"Oh, I'm _so_ terrified."

"It'll happen," I assured him with a shrug, stuffing my hands comfortably into my pockets. "That's all there is to it."

"…your overconfidence will destroy you," Loki hissed, is gaze losing all appearance of calm. "It is only a mask. Do you _really_ think I have no idea who you _are_? That your flagrant profanities threaten me? All they are is a _crutch_ with which you bolster your failed courage."

"Oh, I'm _so_ scared," I mocked. Bad idea. He leaned closer, every part of his face seething with hatred and malice.

"Maybe not now, but soon you will, when I bring you the empty corpses of all those you held dear."

I stiffened with cold at the bare image of Tony dead in my arms. _No_. Loki's face twisted into a vicious grin as he came up to the glass.

"Yes, that thought haunts you…ever since you saw the poison in his flesh. Do you think I will be more generous than that? Far from it. Everyone you have come to love will die under my hand, languishing, while you _watch_. And when the last of them is nothing more than mutilated flesh, I will come for your _precious_ brother."

A fist met the window between us, making me jump, heart starting to race. No. No, I wasn't going to let him get to me…but Loki's vicious eyes fixed my gaze as images of Rhodes, Pepper, Steve, even Moreau and Hogan, wasted and destroyed, flashed in my mind's eye. Loki's look never wavered as my horrified imagination found Tony.

"You will _watch_ as he destroys himself, slowly, thoughtlessly," Loki spat, his voice low and grating, "in every way I _know_ you fear. I won't even have to lay a hand on him because he'll do it all _himself_! And when he lies dead in your arms, you mewling quim, you will see that you _let it happen_ in your vanity!"

I had to turn away from that gaze, shaking in horror and struggling to breathe. No. It wasn't going to happen. Not while I was still alive. I'd made a _promise_, and if Tony ever went down the road that he'd found while he was palladium-sick I'd drag him back even if it took me with him. I closed my eyes and forced myself to focus.

"…even if you do it, I'll _never_ give you the satisfaction of seeing my pain, you soulless monster," I managed to spit. All it got was a scathing chuckle from Loki.

"Monster?" He laughed softly. "I am not the monster here. You brought it with you."

I turned to fix him a hard glare. Maybe we were the same person under different circumstances. But there was one thing I knew I _wasn't_.

"I'm not you."

I left at that, shaking as I reclaimed my Bluetooth. And I still didn't have any clue about what Loki's next move was; he had to have one, if he was in a cage that was practically indestructible –

I was nearly to my dorm to get more sleep when I finally _got it_. I had brought the monster _with me_. And what Loki had said when Fury went to talk to him, at the mention of Bruce, a beast making play at being a man…

"Mina, get Nat and Thor, Loki's going to try and wake up the Hulk and smash us right out of the sky!" I barked into my earpiece as I turned right around to rush for the lab.

"I alerted Natashalie, but there's more to worry about!" Mina reported as I jumped stairs and pushed through hallways. Why did the dorms have to be so damn far from my crazy brother? "Tony had Jarvis get through the SHIELD firewall and he's found Phase 2, Fury's en route and a lot closer than you are!"

"And you couldn't block Jarvis _why_?!"

"He was introduced as hard code and not a remote access, he was already in the system and just needed a way in!"

I swore before breaking into a real run to the lab. I managed to get there alongside Nat and Thor, but Fury was already there, as was Steve. It didn't take long for me to take stock of the situation: everyone already in was trying to find out why SHIELD had designs for WMDs based on the Tesseract, and Fury was, of course, trying to cover his ass.

"If everyone could _shut up_ for five minutes?!" I barked before turning to Bruce. "Think you might wanna step out of the room, Doc, keep your cool."

"I was in Calcutta, if you recall, I can handle a bit of stress," he retorted politely, but briskly. I was able to glance at the nearest computer screen and noted a telltale flicker of Mina at work.

"Loki's manipulating you, has been since I turned up at your doorstep," I insisted. His dark gaze flickered warningly and I shifted my weight back uneasily. I didn't have my backpack why, again...

"And what do you call _this_?" Bruce asked sharply, motioning to the nearest screen. "I want to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to make weapons of mass destruction."

All eyes turned to Fury at that, and I couldn't help but wince inside. Thankfully I'd kept my signature off those designs, otherwise I knew I'd be getting a roasting, too. To be fair, Fury had gone through enough after the Avengers Initiative had gotten scrapped; it had been his baby, and I knew he wished that Phase 2 hadn't been selected. That was why he had tapped every single individual here for retrieving the Cube; it was a chance to get what he'd been denied through normal SHIELD channels. But at least he answered honestly. The problem with that was everyone first turned on him, then each other. Thankfully I was only affixed to watching and listening, managing to just barely keep my tongue in my head.

"Andy!" Mina piped up in my ear, and I was able to stop watching the chaos to focus on her. At least no one had tried to attack me yet. "Signals from the scepter, one wavelength focused here, and something close is tracking it, headed our way!"

"Dammit!" I spat, shaking my head as if that would stop Loki's manipulations. But by the time I looked back up, Bruce suddenly had the scepter in his hand and looked right on the verge of letting Hulk out on purpose.

"…Doctor Banner," Steve noted slowly, momentarily forgetting about arguing with Tony, "put down the scepter."

It seemed to make Bruce double-take in confusion, and he looked down at his hand to see it, obviously shaken. I exhaled slowly as the aura of the room definitely got less tense.

"…now maybe we should get out of here before bad things happen," I noted, but it was obvious Loki's manipulation was still on most everyone else when a large Stark console – obviously something Tony had had delivered – beeped successfully. We had a fix on the Cube.

"Looks like you don't get to see my party trick after all," Bruce muttered as he set down the spear and headed for the computer. I moved after him as everyone spoke up about who was best to go after the Cube – and Tony spoiling for a fight with Steve, dear God – and my eyes widened to see where the signal was. I glanced at Bruce, who was looking right back at me.

"That no-good son of a –"

"_Andy_!" Mina shouted right before a ball of flame burst up through the floor. I instinctively grabbed onto Bruce as the two of us were blown back into the airshaft on the other side of the windows backing the lab. I let go of Bruce just before we hit the grating on the bottom, debris raining down on us. I managed a few shaky breaths before pushing myself up a bit, enough to make sure my earpiece was still in place.

"Mina…what was that…"

"External explosion, took out one of the engines," Mina reported. "I think Loki's comrades turned up to get their boss out, and that was them ringing the doorbell."

"Mina, stop using bad metaphors," I grumbled, trying to pull my legs free of a pipe that was pinning my knees. I gritted my teeth as I tried to pull myself free, but an uncomfortable gasp made me pause and look over at Bruce. He was hunched over, fists clenched against the grate as he rocked back and forth, moaning in pain. Oh, hell no…

"…Bruce…Bruce, come on, don't let him out," I pleaded, still focusing my energy in getting my legs free. If Hulk came out I was as good as dead if I couldn't run. "You said you had him, please, Bruce…"

He managed to shake his head, and I could see a faint swath of green appearing on his neck. Dammit, no…. I dragged one leg free of the pipe, using my other foot to start levering myself out. I spared him another glance, and he shoved himself back onto the floor near the pipes. I was able to hear a bunch of mechanics on approach, but I waved them off as fast as I could. Okay, Stark, think, get him to not go into rage…

"Bruce, listen," I said, still trying to pull my other leg free, "I swear, you'll get out of this, just don't let him _out_…"

All I got in reply was a look back from him. Already his shoulders and chest had expanded, muscles rippling as his shirt ripped apart, and the fear in those dark brown eyes made me shiver. He knew, but at this point there was nothing that could stop the Hulk. I just barely managed to rip my other leg out from under that damned pipe as Bruce howled, the sound turning into an enraged roar as the Hulk staggered up, fists clenched and back arched, ready to attack the first thing he saw. I managed to stagger to my feet, but I knew there was only one thing I could do at this point.

"…hey, Mina, help me get away," I murmured into my ear. The micro screen deployed as Hulk turned slowly, growling, and as soon as I saw my first direction up the stairs behind me I turned and bolted. It was half a second before Hulk charged me with a bellow, and I managed to get out of his grasp and running hard through the bowels of the helicarrier as he smashed and crashed after me.

My day could not get any worse.


	8. 7: Defeat

**A/N: **Hello my lovely readers! So, the plan is, I will attempt to do weekly updates, in hopes of having this fic finished in time for the release of _Iron Man 3_! You can tell there's not much left to do, so that's what I've got!

Also, since I can't write back to my kind anonymous reviewers, thanks for reviewing, and, as requested, there's more Tony-Andy fluff. You're welcome. Enjoy and don't forget to review!

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**7: Defeat**

When you're running through the underbelly of a five-hundred-foot-plus flying aircraft carrier with a seven-foot-tall green rage monster chasing after you thinking you're the reason he nearly got killed, it's not exactly easy to either get a breather or get something that could help make you run faster. Especially since I was unarmed and half-limping because my knees still hurt like hell, so that made the Hulk just come at me even faster. But I did have one advantage, and I was grateful I had made those schematics for the helicarrier a year ago, because they were saving my life right now.

I managed to swing my way just enough ahead of the Hulk that I could drop down to the floor, mostly hidden, and try to snatch a breather. Mina was tracking Hulk, and when watching him stalk around, hunting me, I managed to softly whisper, "What's the status on that engine?"

"Tony and the Captain are working on repairing it," she reported. "Since I didn't detect a missile signature and knowing Barton's with Loki at least for the short-term, I figure it was one of his explosive arrows, high-yield."

I managed not to swear because I heard Hulk's heavy breathing come closer, so I managed to start creeping away, down a slim access that only normal-sized people could fit into. As I did, I heard my SHIELD communication line ping, and I quickly opened the line.

"In case no one's noticed, I'm on one of the sublevels, getting hunted by big-green-nasty for the second time…"

"I did notice," Natashalie whispered back. The softness of her voice meant she was probably right within Hulk's earshot, and I silently decided to be grateful for her right now. "I have your suit, but part of it got damaged in the explosion, hopefully nothing serious."

"So long as the power couplings in the chest aren't damaged, I'll take it," I breathed back, stiffening when I heard Hulk's feet thunder slowly above me. I forced myself to shut up until they had passed, then turned as Mina got a fix on Nat's earpiece and pinned her location on the micro-screen. "I'm under him right now, he walked right on top of me but thankfully didn't see, heading in your direction."

"Just be quiet," Nat insisted, her voice barely audible. "I'll try to hold out in my current location, but he's getting close. If we have to run, I'll pass the suit off."

"Sounds good," I decided before the line closed. Mina still had Nat's position for me, so I kept creeping along, doing my best not to make noise. Stealth training had been okay, but not fantastic, at least sans-suit, so I had to stop and cover a pained wince whenever I heard something shift because of me, because any sound I made –

The grate above me lifted up, and I scooted as fast as I could when I heard an enraged roar sound above me. I managed to get out of the way of a stomped foot, and then next turn I made dumped me back somewhere I could get back on my feet and run. A bright flash of red met me as Nat jumped out of hiding and sprinted with me, hefting the pack with her even as Hulk crashed after us. I barely managed to get the thing into my hands and got the shoulder straps on, still running.

"Split up!" Nat ordered, and since I was in Hulk-handling-mode I complied immediately. Lucky for me, Hulk went for her – probably the red hair – so I had some time to get the rest of the straps and clamps secure before heading back for them, not deploying the suit yet. I could move faster, and quieter, on foot without it, but having the familiar weight on my back was comforting, to say the least. Especially if I needed to plow myself into Hulk with enough force to distract him from Nat.

The problem was, when I finally caught up, was that Hulk was looming over her, and even though I couldn't see her face I knew the famed Natasha Romanoff was scared out of her wits. I got the suit deployed and moved back so I could build up running speed and charge him, but thankfully someone else managed to save her, in a blur of silver and red. I sighed in relief but ran out of my corridor to crouch in front of Nat, her eyes still wide and shaking all over. It was the first time I had ever seen her so vulnerable and almost childlike.

"Nat? Natasha?" I asked, taking her shoulders and shaking her a bit. Her gaze came up to me, even though she looked away again. "Listen to me, Natasha. We need you. We need you right now but you're not doing anyone any good sitting here and shivering in the corner. Pull yourself together, now, come on…"

I kept a hold on her, trying to get her to focus, but nothing worked; for the moment, she was stuck in Natasha-world while Thor and Hulk brawled less than twenty feet away from me. Even though I knew I had other things to do, I stayed there next to her, trying to get her to become sensible…at least until Mina piped up.

"Everyone, the cameras just went dead in the detention level, I think it's Barton!"

"He's going to try and free Loki!" Fury agreed; so Mina had accessed the common band. "Can anyone intercept?!"

I looked over at Nat, and even though a lick of fear was still in her face a familiar determined glint sparked in her eyes at the mention of Barton. I smirked before my helmet close up, and Nat reached up to call in.

"…this is agent Romanoff," she reported shakily. "I copy."

"Agent Stark, copy," I added as Nat jumped to her feet, then closed the common band. "You take him head-on; if Loki's somehow out of his cell, or Barton has guys coming from another angle, I'll cut them off."

Nat just nodded once before darting off, and with Mina's help I managed to find a relatively roundabout route to get to the monitoring station and the back wall of the shaft Loki's cell was perched in. I got lucky. A sudden blast exploded the metal, and a smoking Loki tumbled out practically at my feet, scepter in hand but obviously shaken. He didn't notice me and forced himself to his feet to start running, but once he had gone twenty feet I shot after him through the air, crashing into him with enough force to kill a normal man. Loki just grunted as I pinned him to the floor, clicking my tongue at him.

"Ah ah ah, naughty boy out of your cell," I scolded, and this time Loki did not appreciate the humor. He tried to wrestle me off, but only managed to get turned around so we were face to face, hopefully for the last time.

"How smug you are," he spat, still struggling to get me off him, but I had his shoulders pinned with my knees and had a fist ready.

"Let's see how smug you'll be when you're back in your glass box!" I snarled, slamming my fist down towards his face, but suddenly Loki became insubstantial and vanished, sending a jarring shock up my arm and shoulder and into my skull, but I managed to turn and roll out of the way of the long-form scepter slashing out at me, the flash of blue-violet light making my eyes water at the sudden brightness against the dark.

"You think yourself so superior in your metal armor," Loki spat, but in retort I extended one of my plasma-blades and managed to catch a lunge of his spear, teeth gritted and eyes narrowed. I wasn't going to let him win and escape. Not while I had any ability to fight.

"Not superior," I grunted as I held the lock and got the other blade extended, adding more ghostly-blue light to the dark corridor. "Just well-prepared."

I shoved his scepter away, using my momentum to swing the other blade at him. Loki leaned out of the way, but that gave me range to try and fire a repulsor blast, which he somehow managed to catch and deflect into a wall with his spear. I snarled as I lunged forward, blades swinging as we dueled, lightning-fast and no one managing to break the other's defense. The problem, though, was that, at that speed and against the sort of inhuman strength Loki had, I was winded pretty fast. Even with Mina trying to help me compensate, Loki soon bashed through my defenses, ramming the butt end of his scepter into my collar bone, sending me staggering back. But he followed up faster than I could see, stunned as I was, and I bit down a howl of pain as he managed to stab up through my armpit into my shoulder. That must've been the damage Nat mentioned…and it hurt, both the blade of the spear in my shoulder and Loki's jeering smirk.

"Even your precious armor cannot save you," He hissed at me, siding close as he lifted me, on his spear, off the floor. It hurt like _hell_, but my uninjured arm started coming up, and I glared right back at him through the eyes of my faceplate.

"I can still…do this!" I snapped, managing to shoot a repulsor into Loki's face. It sent him staggering back, but instead of the spear simply sliding out of the hole it had made it ripped, through skin and muscle and metal, through my shoulder. That was when I screamed, clutching my arm as it fell uselessly to my side, burning in pain. But Loki vanished when I heard movement not far off, and I managed to stagger towards the hole into Loki's cell.

My day got worse when I saw, sprawled against a wall and with a massive gun in his lap, Phil Coulson gasping to breathe while a soaking red stain spread across his shirt, getting redder and redder as it bled out his life. I managed to fight my own pain and hurried to him, right as a medical team and Fury came in after me.

"Loki went that way," I gasped to some of the agents accompanying Fury once I managed to get my helmet off. Thankfully Fury himself kept his silence, heading for the monitoring station, so I pulled the gun out of Coulson's hands and got him to look at me. "Coulson, hey…what happened, how…?"

"Found out what that does," he managed to reply, nodding weakly towards the gun. I managed a smile, but it was shaky. No, no, please, don't let me not stopping everyone cost this man his life….

"Sure did," I told him as bravely as I could. I put my good hand on his chest, horrified to feel that the wound was deep; if it had gone through to his spine, Coulson would be paralyzed from the waist down at least if he made it. He was in shock, I could tell that much, and I tried to keep my voice from shaking. _I don't want someone I care about to die._ "Just hold on, Coulson, the medical team's here, they'll get you fixed up, no problem…"

"'S okay, Andy," Coulson said, trying to offer me a reassuring smile despite the blood ringing his mouth. "'m not a superhero…"

"Shut up. You're part of this team, as much as…as me, or Tony, don't…"

_Don't prove Loki right. Don't let him be right._

"…it's okay. Really," Coulson sighed weakly. "Be like…like going on vacation or something. Goin' back home."

His eyes fixed on mine, and a cold feeling swept over me. He knew something. He knew something that was a secret to me, that Dad – most likely – had left, some clue…

"…it'll make you stronger," Coulson insisted, and I grabbed his limp hand as best I could, swallowing painfully.

"…Long Island? Before Loki?"

"Sounds good to me," he replied with a nod. "Andy…just take care of everyone, okay?"

He could still move his arms, and it was slowly he opened his jacket and managed to pull out his vintage Captain America cards, all of them now a little bloodstained. Coulson pressed them into my own limp hand, making my fingers close around them.

"Maybe they'll never be a team," Coulson breathed, "but…but they need something. Someone. To…"

"Coulson…don't, don't you…" I sputtered, even as he breathed his last right before my eyes, the hand in mine slowly falling away. The cards spilled out as my fingers fell open, and for the first time in nearly thirty years I cried. I was still crying when the medical team made Mina disengaged my armor so they could treat my shoulder, stitch up the tearing and wrap it in a bandage. All the while I cried helplessly, like I was five years old again.

Someone had died to do the job I hadn't done. The person who had virtually brought us all together was gone, because of _me_. Because I couldn't move fast enough, fight hard enough…. Loki's words came back to me hauntingly when I finally stopped my tears in my bed in my dorm. I had tried to win favor by doing the right thing, and no matter what I did I fell short. I was _wanting_.

…but Loki hadn't won. Not yet. And when I dragged myself out of my bed, injured arm in a sling to prevent my shoulder stitches from getting pulled, I knew where I had to go. If there was something on Long Island, back in the house I had grown up in, that would help me…it wasn't the time to be mad at Dad, or Mom, for not telling me the truth. Both for Stane and Vanya I had left the secrets to last, when they could have given me strength enough to fight and _win_. But not this time.

I was looking off into the distance up on the flight deck, in spite of the thin air, when Tony slid up behind me, careful of my shoulder and he hugged me from behind. I leaned back to nestle into his arms, tears threatening to spill out of my eyes again as I reached up with my good hand to clutch his fingers tightly.

"You okay?" he asked quietly, not being a jerk or butting heads with Cap. Just being Tony, _my_ Tony, who had always loved me no matter what. I snuggled back into his chest a bit, and was rewarded with a gentle head-kiss that Tony loved giving me.

"…Coulson died," I managed to say, voice shaking but not cracking. "I – I could've saved him, gotten him to the medics faster…"

"Don't say that," Tony insisted quietly. "You can't blame yourself for that…"

"Yes I can," I mumbled, and he got me turned around to hug me properly, tucking my head under his chin lovingly. He rubbed my back when the tears came back, and I clung to his shirt until they were spent again.

"…he mentioned something about…about Long Island," I mumbled into Tony's chest, letting him hold me a bit longer. "Somethin' there for me, maybe. Dunno, he…he wasn't specific."

"Somethin' to check out after kickin' Loki in the butt, huh?" he asked, but I shook my head. I couldn't fight Loki with one arm useless, much less a few thousand aliens friends he was bringing along for the ride. Maybe whatever was there would fix my damned shoulder.

"…not this time. I – I feel like I gotta handle it before this time."

"What if you don't have the time?" Tony asked, moving back to look at me worriedly. I knew what he was thinking: he didn't want to lose me to Loki because I'd gone running off to do God-knows-what and me being the deciding factor in whatever was going to shake down. I hugged him around the neck a bit, shaking but still confident that leaving to get to Long Island now was a better plan than being dead weight when the fighting started.

"…save a piece of him for me," I insisted, frowning darkly as I let go and rubbed my bad shoulder a bit. I'd make him pay for it if I was fighting fit in time. "I've got a score to settle with that psycho-freak."

Tony still looked worried, so I attacked him with a one-armed hug and a kiss on the cheek so he'd feel better, if only a little. But I had to do this, whatever happened.

"…help me get ready to fly?"


	9. 8: Who I Was Meant To Be

**8: Who I Was Meant To Be**

Getting my armor back on, with Tony's help, was a lot less of a hassle than if it'd just been me. Even though my bad shoulder hurt like hell, none of my stitches popped open, which was a plus. Neither of us said anything, because I knew that Tony would try to talk me out of going again, but I was going, whether or not it really mattered that I got what was out there right now or in five more years. I just had this gut feeling. Not to mention Coulson's insistence echoed in my mind. I couldn't say no to a dead man. A man I'd let die. I wasn't going to let that happen again.

"If somethin' goes wrong, you know I can't come after you to save the day," Tony insisted as he passed me my helmet. "You might even miss the bigger show."

"Well, if I do, just give me a chance to pound on Loki before he goes back wherever he came from," I retorted, careful as I wedged my helmet under my bad arm, wincing fractionally. "Besides, who knows, maybe I'll get lucky and still get in on the fighting. Plenty of aliens for everyone."

"Let's hope so," Tony sighed before hugging me one last time. I held back as tightly as I could manage, but kept him from coming to see me off. He had to fix up his Mark VI before anything else, and if my memory served right Loki wasn't going to be too far from the house, anyway. I stepped away from him before heading to the flight deck, already working on planning out my flight path as I climbed out into the wind and the sun. Even with the helicarrier still in the air, there was a definite feeling of failure on the deck. I swallowed uncomfortably and pulled my helmet free from my arm.

"Andy!" Steve called out from behind me before I started working on getting my helmet on, and I turned in surprise to see him coming after me. He was trying to shrug on the top part of his suit, his neatly-combed hair becoming a mess in the breeze, but I moved to close the distance, trying to get him to stop. He caught me by my good elbow, so my hand ended up on his shoulder, my helmet half-slung against his back. "Here, you shouldn't go alone, let me come with you."

"…Tony, the jerk, he told you, didn't he?!"

"No. I saw you on the move and I'm coming with you."

"Steve," I insisted, surprising myself with calling him by his name, "you're needed here. This is something I have to do alone, but everyone left here _needs you_. Tony wouldn't admit it, but Natashalie, Fury, Barton if his head's on straight…they all need you more than me right now. I'll be fine. I'm me, remember? I won't be that far, anyway, just over on Long Island, anything needing me comes up Mina can call me."

Steve's sharp blue eyes fired directly into mine, and for a half-second I wondered if he'd ever looked at Mom this same way, nearly seventy years ago. I wondered if he saw her when he looked at me, and that was why he did so much for me, or tried to. Or maybe I was overthinking it entirely. Maybe it was something else.

"Are you _sure_?" he asked finally, quietly. My hand hadn't moved from his shoulder, but I was surprised to find the hand not on my elbow gently settled on my waist. Nothing questionable, or enough to make me nearly jump out of my skin, but supportive. Reassuring. It was a weird feeling, and it was right in sync with that now-familiar hot/cold feeling I tended to get when I was around him.

"…last couple times a secret that was kept from me came up, things happened to where it came after the big fight," I sighed eventually, trying to get the will to draw myself from his grasp but I…couldn't. Not really. Much like I couldn't look away from the worried gaze that met mine, trying to find some way to protect me from whatever I was going after. "It never turned out that well. So…what if this one is what stops Loki?"

"Which is exactly why I'm coming with you," Steve insisted again, starting to let go so he could finish getting on his jacket, but I had to stop him, this time with a hand on his cheek. It was a weird place for me to touch him, especially with my gauntlet on, but it made him stop as I made him look at me again.

"…no, Steve. This is mine to face, and mine alone."

That sounded like something stupid from some fantasy novel that wasn't _Lord of the Rings_.

"And I'll likely be back before you know it," I amended, offering a small grin that was trying to be reassuring and confident and sassy whether or not it worked. "So you _and_ Tony have to save some alien freaks for me, all right?"

Apparently that small smile of mine had worked, because Steve managed one back, shyly glancing away for a moment. That, I knew, was no doubt what Mom had loved in him before she'd fallen for Dad. He moved his hands to holding mine, and I squeezed his fingers as best I could, with my bad shoulder and my armor. My helmet fell loudly to the deck, but Steve didn't really notice.

"I'll try," he insisted with a gaze that still begged me to let him come. "But I can't promise anything once we get going, or if someone reappears."

"Then they'll have to save me some, too," I retorted softly before I let go of his hands and reached around him to gather my helmet, one-handed. I was going to put it on again, but Steve stopped me yet again.

"…be careful, Andy."

"…remind me to tell you about a couple of times Tony told me to be careful and that never really worked out."

"You'll get out of it," Steve assured me with a sideways little smile. "I know you will."

"Always manage to somehow," I agreed, but Steve got in close again before I could finally lower my helmet into place.

"…and before you go…" he murmured, his hand suddenly on my jaw, gently tilting my face towards his. For a moment, time seemed to be frozen: Captain America, my childhood hero, was looking at me like this, in a way that I had only ever associated with sappy romance movies and maybe occasionally with Tony. His hand was on my face, and suddenly it made sense. His worry, his trying to spend time with me, insisting that I was a lady no matter what character defects I had; his eyes told me all of that and more.

I knew for sure when he ducked in to kiss me, when I felt warm and melty like butter inside my suit and his hand slipped around to the back of my neck. I was holding my helmet in my only good hand, but I closed my eyes and kissed back, shivering all the way down to my toes because, for the first time in my life, I knew what love from outside my weird little family felt like. And it was the most amazing thing in the world. I didn't want it to stop, but the problem with him being him and me being me, there were bigger things to worry about than us. I had to pull myself away, ever so gently, even though I rested my forehead against Steve's, eyes still shut so I could only hear our voices and the wind rushing around us.

"…Tony's going to hate me but I don't care," I murmured, trying to fight down a delirious little giggle. Yes, my brother would hate knowing I'd found a potential real boyfriend in a man easily old enough to be my father – and I knew it, too. Steve smiled a little at my attempt at a joke.

"So let him deal with it," he insisted, and I snickered a little at his agreement.

"That he can. So…so don't get yourself killed while I'm gone, okay?"

"I won't; it'll be fine," Steve agreed, and he even reached down to take my helmet and eased it onto my head. Even if he couldn't see it, I smiled at him before he turned me loose, and I took as best a running start away from him before jumping into the air, flying towards my old home, and whatever secret awaited me there.

Something about landing on the front lawn of the large Victoriana-styled mansion where I had grown up in my suit seemed almost nonsensical and contradictory. Twenty years ago I would have given anything to be away from this place; nearly thirty and an aching hole inside me wept for something to fill where my mother was supposed to be. Now with that either buried within me or resolved in some manner, standing tall in the image I had crafted for myself, I was coming back to where it had all began; where the thing that was me began. At least I had my armor fold up into its pack form as I headed for the door, digging out the key from my pocket to unlock it and slip inside.

Even though the place was effectively mine, thanks to the amendment to my father's will that left it to me, I hadn't been around that much. Most of the rooms, including Tony's old bedroom and Dad's office and library, I had left closed, while I had opened up my old room, aired out the living room, kitchen, and dining room, while establishing my own little workshop in the basement. This was where the mostly-completed components of my Mark VII were stored, and I headed down there first to leave my pack near the nearly-all-black plates that just needed neural linkups into my brain to be operational. But I wasn't an engineer like Tony, not even at a near-microscopic level. I couldn't make them up myself. Sure, I'd sent out to see if any private companies were doing anything similar – under a false name, of course – and a couple of places had been working in that sort of track, but nothing solid enough for me to work with. So my Mark VII was a very pretty dust collector at the moment. Sadly, that wasn't the secret thing I was looking for.

"Okay, Mina, I'm plugging you into the wall phone," I said into my Bluetooth once I'd come out of the basement. "I know it's a landline, but you should still be able to reach SHIELD and keep an eye on time, in case they start moving and need me functioning."

"How long do I have to?" Mina asked impetuously before I pulled her out of my ear with a fond eye-roll to get her wired in. Now then. I had three floors and a wide variety of rooms to investigate, with not a clue as to what I was looking for. At least I knew the place like the back of my hand.

It didn't take long to clear out the places I was living in and occupying; while there was a handy little closet that could have been perfect for hiding something in the kitchen, I couldn't find a secret compartment or door in it. Living room was obviously clean, as was dining; I knew my room and my relationship with my father well enough to know there wouldn't be anything in there from him to me. I worked my way into Tony's room from there, dusty but still as cluttered and teenage-boyish as I remembered, just without the models pinned to the walls. I checked every nook and cranny, even venturing into his closet to look for anything suspicious. Clean as could be, excluding the dust.

After that, it got emotionally more difficult to keep searching, not to mention my shoulder was itching and I had a feeling trying to make my arm move was pulling my stitches and torn muscles too much. But I made myself kneel on the floor and jiggle at the lock on Dad's office, swallowing painfully when I managed it and pushed the door open. In all the years I had lived here, this room was the most perfectly recollected with misery as Tony's was with the happy times I had had here. Dad's heavy cherry desk sat directly across from the door, facing out through a bay window that gave a good view of the lawn and the trees that guarded our house from invisible invaders. Bookshelves were along the walls, coated in thick dust though I knew they were all engineering tomes. I made myself cross the threshold and start checking the bookshelves, leaving the desk for last and careful not to so much as disturb the empty leather chair my father had once occupied. I went through each drawer and checked for secret compartments, without finding anything at all. I ran my good hand under the chair before I got up and left, closing the door behind me and heading to the kitchen to get something edible, as well as letting my bad shoulder rest.

So where could it be, I thought as I chewed on a sandwich, staring out through the kitchen door across the hall to the door of Dad's office. Where could something have been hidden, outside of my vast knowledge of the house, that no one else could find except for me when it was made known to me? I tried to think like Dad would have, but it hurt too much. Instead I let my mind drift a bit, and a funny thing happened when it did.

When we were kids, and before I had found the box of Captain America memorabilia hidden in the attic, my favorite game to play with Tony had been hide-and-seek. We didn't even have to go outside to play, nor would it bother Dad by playing inside; Tony and I found the best hiding places by exploring the house, scrambling to find them in the most obvious of rooms. My favorite hiding place, though, had always been in the very back of Mom's closet. There was a little niche back there where I could wedge myself into and be hidden from Tony for hours, even if he gave the closet a cursory look-through twice over. After Mom had died, though, I had sort of made myself forget that room – and that closet – had ever existed. But remembering it now, I set aside my sandwich and ran upstairs, passing Tony's room and mine before reaching the far end of the landing, looking at a door that I had made my eyes simply gloss past for seven years or so. Looking at it again made my chest hurt, though thankfully not from reactor pain. I made myself approach the door and take the doorknob in hand, turn it, and push the door open as slowly as I could.

When I managed to make myself look inside, I felt like I was five again. Mom's room hadn't been touched, by anyone, except for the tiny humanlike depression on the top of her bed, the rumpled pillow I had pressed my face against as I sobbed for my mother but too proud, even then, to let Dad see me crying. Otherwise, a thick, likely-permanent layer of dust had settled over everything, even my preserved outline on the bed. I did my best to walk for the closet without crying or sneezing, and when I opened it I found that, much to my surprise, Mom's clothes had been pushed away from the niche, but not recently. Thanks to my reactor I didn't need a flashlight, and when I moved back towards the niche my heart lodged into my throat. Right where I remember pressing my back, hidden by the fabric of Mom's dresses and coats as well as the indent of the wall, I saw now, very clearly, the outline of a door, painted over but the line of it unmistakable in the glow of my reactor.

I started running my hands along the drawn frame, and managed to find a handle, also camouflaged, and I managed to slowly drag the door open, though it moved silently on flat hinges that prevented the door from being seen. It was pitch black down the passage I saw, but a little groping along the wall inside got me a light switch, and despite being at least thirty years old a string of dim lightbulbs flickered to life, revealing a staircase and, at the bottom, what looked like a small room that could have fit two people. I wedged my way through the narrow door and descended carefully.

The room I had made out was definitely small, and even though there wasn't much in the way of apparatus I could tell that this was no engineering area. A heavy-duty fridge was settled in a corner, crammed in a little by tables and a dusty-looking projector. Some papers were settled on the tabletops, and I dared a glance at these first. The most surprising thing I noticed was that this wasn't my father's functional, semi-legible scrawl; these notes were in a clear, precise, and definitely feminine hand. Most of it wasn't even tech, easily seen in chemical structures and patterns of G-A-T-C that I could tell were genetic sequences of some kind. But I knew the real secret, the whole reason I was down in this secret lab that had no doubt belonged to my parents, was on that projector. Film was already strung on it; all I needed to do was wind it back, then get the thing plugged into a generator tucked in the far corner. One of the flat walls worked for a projection screen, and after some finagling I settled on top of a table and got the projector started, though I was shaking and my shoulder hurt and, honestly, I was scared of what I was about to find.

Instead of my father's face looking down on me, as it had to give Tony the secret to solving the reactors, Maria Stark appeared on the wall, smiling softly at me. My throat choked to see that this wasn't the young woman I had mostly imagined from my childhood memories; though still beautiful, with waving dark hair Tony and I had inherited and her same dark eyes, Mom was worn and tired and I had a terrible feeling that this recording was undoubtedly the last words she had said before she had died. But that smile was enough to hold my attention as my mother spoke to me for the first time in over thirty years.

"…if you're listening to this, my beloved Andrea, then I am dead and…and Howard has told you about this place. This…laboratory where we worked in secret to try and recreate the formula Abraham Erskine used to make one man something far more."

I nearly forgot to breathe at that, but Mom continued:

"I'm certain Howard may have told you, but I will repeat it in case he didn't. We did succeed, or we believed we did. The only way we could know was if we tested it, and we knew it wouldn't be either of us. We had to be just as careful as Doctor Erskine was in selecting Steve; if we unleashed another Johann Schmidt on the world…"

Mom trailed off with a shudder that I joined her in.

"We stopped analysis when Howard dared to suggest something that, at the time, I didn't dare conceive of. He wanted us to test the serum on you, Andrea, as well as Anthony. I stopped him, reminding him of who he was speaking of, and we froze the one viable sample we had, destroying the rest. But now…now that I am dying, now that…things are happening, I can see a reason why he suggested what seemed horrible to me at the time."

I was struck dumb, trying to imagine what Mom was telling me. It made sense, trying to remake that formula, even if it meant being so careful in finding the right person so a monster didn't get unleashed into the world. I remembered the debriefing about Banner, what had happened in Harlem and what Ross had done to a soldier who had let the power of another serum-candidate get to his head. The world didn't need another Blonsky running around loose, let alone a new Red Skull. But testing the serum on _us_? On me and Tony?

"I know it sounds…awful, Andrea, believe me," Mom pleaded, as if reading my thoughts thirty years in the future. "But I understand now. Howard knew – I know – you are both beautiful, good children who will grow up into adults that will undoubtedly change the world forever. But while Anthony will have his father's legacy – the company, and the lifestyle that will come with it – that life isn't for you, my bright little spitfire. Working in business isn't for you. You have as much of me as your brother has of your father, and…and I could never be more proud to know that you take up my role in SHIELD, what was the SSR when I was younger. That is where I _know_ you will belong.

"But some day, when you're older, you won't be able to win, to save what needs to be saved. Not alone. Even with the bright genius of the both of you, you will have to become even more. And…and that is why I hope, with all my heart, my beloved Andrea, that…that you will use the serum your father and I have made. It is the only one of its kind; no one can steal it from you. But I hope, one day…you'll make me, and your father, proud. I will always love you, my dear girl."

I hardly noticed the tears on my face as the film ended, and my breathing was ragged. Mom's words weighed on my shoulders, and even though I tried to reason my way out of it there _was_ no reasoning out of it. Right now, an insane demigod was about to unleash an army of aliens on Earth. Even with the most accomplished, most powerful and strong, people on the planet to fight back, it might not be enough. I would be next to useless; getting my armor back on was virtually out of the question, let alone the state of my shoulder. If I was even going to make it to where I _hoped_ I had seen the Tesseract's signature, I had to do something _now_. What other choice did I have?

The other line of thought was a bit more selfish. All my life, I was always Tony's little sister. Even in SHIELD, I was still Tony's little sister, no matter my aptitude scores and training successes and missions I could go on. But this serum was a chance to finally break away from that. For the first time in my life, I could be _me_. Sure, Tony would still be my brother, and I'd still love him with all my heart, but I wouldn't have to be joined at the associative hip to him.

Like a slap in the face I remembered Loki's threats, and immediately anger seared my veins. With a bum arm Loki could do whatever the hell he wanted to Tony. He might even manage to control Tony, turn him against me, and then what? No amount of love I showed him would stop Loki from using my brother to destroy everything we'd rebuilt between us. Loki was more than human; I would have to be the same to face him head-on again.

I got off of my table and headed for the fridge, as my conviction hardened to the consistency of steel. It wasn't just Tony I had to fight for; it was Steve, Banner, Barton, even Natashalie and the rest of SHIELD. And beyond that; they knew people, who knew more people, and in the end it covered the whole world. I had to fight for _them_. Not myself, not just to show up Loki that he couldn't take me down as easily as he might have thought. But for a world of people for whom freedom was being able to do whatever the hell they wanted and not having anyone to stop them. That was why we fought wars in the first place. And this war would be no different. My hand was already on the handle and wrenching the fridge open. Cold air flooded around my legs, and, just as Mom had said, the fridge held only one item. To anyone else, it was just a very old-school, maybe 1960's-ish syringe, filled with a brilliant blue liquid that looked very much like the blue of Steve's eyes. But to me it was more. To me, it was the way forward. It was time to get out of the shadows and face who I was supposed to be.

I settled on a table that I had cleared of notes, rolling the syringe mercilessly between my hands to thaw the contents. Without a pause once I could feel liquid rolling inside, I locked the elbow connected to my bad shoulder as best as I could and pressed the needle carefully into one of my veins. Whatever happened next, I was never going back.


	10. 9: Shake the Ground

**A/N:** This is your lucky week, my lovely readers! Two chapters in one go! How could I leave you hanging as to what that lovely stuff Andy's just shot into herself does. Not to mention it simplifies things to happen in IM3. Soooo much. Anyway! Read, review, and enjoy!

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**9: Shake the Ground**

For the first few moments, I thought the shot was a dud, that it had lost its mojo being locked in a fridge for thirty-plus years. After all, I didn't feel dizzy or sick or anything I'd been half-expecting. Probably because it was still going through my bloodstream, and in the few seconds between me easing off the table to toss aside the syringe and ending up on the floor trying not to scream in pain I figured the serum had started spreading into my system. I could feel myself getting heavier, like my bones and muscles were all changing composition. I thrashed on the floor a bit as the heavy feeling sank into my spine, around the reactor. If I'd been capable of a coherent thought at the time, I would've wondered if the stuff was reacting to the reactor.

I really wasn't able to think anything when it struck my brain. For a moment I was dragged away from the real world into my own mind, and suddenly there was a web of light that was about to engulf me. I couldn't stop myself from falling into it, lost in an ocean of voices and light and code. It took me a bit to realize that I wasn't really anywhere. I was _everywhere_. I was in the signals that crisscrossed Earth, in the information flow, and it was dragging me farther and farther away…

I tried to yell for Mina, but she was somehow able to reach for me before I could even think her name. She grabbed me, almost literally, and wrapped herself around me, shielding me from the information flow and getting me back to consciousness.

_Loki's making his move_, Mina reported while she found whatever system path I'd fallen down to somehow end up in cyberspace. _Jarvis powered down the arc reactor at Stark Tower, but I'm still picking up a massive power reading. Cap, Tony, Barton, and Natashalie are en route._

_ Do you know how I got here?_ I asked, my voice sounding dreamy and slow. No doubt it was, compared to the lightning fast current and Mina's sudden appearance to get me out of it.

_No, but it wasn't hard to find you, nor will it be hard to get you out of here,_ Mina insisted, but she sounded worried. _Whatever is going on, you have your own…system now. It's rather unnerving._

_ You can lock me from getting out in here again, right?_

_ Easily._

With that relief Mina somehow replaced me in my head, and I jolted awake with a strangled yelp, still in the secret lab. The burning sensation had passed, cooling instead, and pushing myself up felt a little more difficult. It wasn't that my joints felt stiff – though they certain did – but I had more mass to me somehow. I realized once I was upright again that my bad shoulder had _lifted me_. I looked where Loki's scepter had torn through the muscle and saw some kind of rippling silver scar in its place, shifting like muscle but definitely _not_. I noticed silver vein-like lines tracing down my arms, barely visible in the lighting except when I shifted, making them shimmer slightly before disappearing again. They stretched all across my body, and when I looked at my palms I could see, very faintly, some kind of mirror construct that was undoubtedly a means to fire off a repulsor blast.

I knew right away it was the serum plus the reactor. It had interacted with the synthetic Tesseract piece inside my chest and made me different. Not different like Steve, gaining muscle and strengthening what was already there. I had my suits, and now I myself, standing here, was a suit, too. An idea came to me, and I bounded back up the stairs as quickly as I could – which was now much faster, taking three steps at a time despite my metallic-feeling frame. I couldn't help but feel a little giddy as I rushed down to my own lab, facing my Mark VII. Okay…if I was right….

I reached out an arm and concentrated on connecting hand to gauntlet. Sure enough, the appropriate gauntlet felt at me, locking in place and the repulsor flaring to life.

"…Mina?" I asked aloud, staring at my hand in awe.

"Yes, Andy?" she replied, sounding just as consternated as I was. Even though I didn't have my Bluetooth in my ear, I could hear Mina, clear as day, and I reached up to feel a tiny growth in my ear, like an organic Bluetooth. It was strange and slightly odd-feeling, but at least it was inside my ear and not growing out of it.

"…I think I have the right neural linkups now."

"That's what it looks like."

"This is totally weird for you, too, right?"

"Uh huh."

I swallowed a little but willed myself to spread my arms and legs, like da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, and with another burst of thought I was soon encased in the burnished black plates of my Mark VII. The display lit up instantly in front of me, and whenever I mentally reached to check a system, there it was for me to see. It was normal and unnatural at the same time. But I didn't have the time to check what all had been done to me. I rolled my shoulders back and headed for my exit tunnel.

"Mina, what's it looking like in Midtown?" I asked, taking the few last seconds I could get to breathe and try to acclimatize as quickly as possible. I had never thought I would have been able to do this. But here I was, connected directly to my suit, directly to Mina, and through her the entire world via communication networks, wireless accesses.

"Tony's there to try and hold off Loki; the Tesseract is live but it's only halfway to critical mass."

"And when it hits critical mass?"

"First contact."

I exhaled and squared my shoulders, rising up to the balls of my feet. I could feel the rockets tingling against my arch, the power ready to fire.

"Hit the SHIELD comm line. Make sure to get to whatever Cap, Barton, and Natashalie are riding in. This is a message they'll all want to hear."

I felt Mina open SHIELD's communication network, and with a smirk I said two words I knew would make Fury's day.

"Avengers, assemble."

I took off as Mina broadcast it, loud and clear, firing through the concrete tunnel and blasting out into the sky, turning towards New York. It felt as if I was really flying for the first time; I was directing which way I went, correcting my course automatically, subconsciously. I doubted that Mom had ever expected the serum to do this to me, but I couldn't help but grin fiercely, knowing that this had been what she had wanted for me. To be more, but not drunk on it, obsessed by it. Maybe I was still a little high in that regard, but I did just get on the move within five minutes of coming out of my new connection to the world. I didn't have a lot of time to exult, though; I was quickly hurtling southwest, off Long Island and towards Manhattan, and even from there I could see a blue glow from the portal the Tesseract was undoubtedly opening. I willed a throttle forward and sped faster across the sky. Stark Tower was not that far from me, and once I was actually on the streets I saw a second armored figure streaking up the side.

"Hook me up," I said, more to myself, and I had a link into Tony's display, as well as Jarvis. Poor Jarvy got startled to see me, but I kept him quiet so I could see Loki's face when Tony reached him.

"And there's one other person you pissed off," he barked as he drifted into the window. "His name is Phil."

"Amen, brother," I called out as Tony blasted Loki, and I cut my visual as I streaked up past him. I heard Tony sputtering in shock, but he came after me. I stopped near the top of the building, trying to get a good look at the portal mechanism, but he grabbed me in a literal flying hug.

"Tell me it's you, Andster," Tony begged, and I laughed a little as I hugged back firmly. _I did this for you, Tony_.

"Who else do you think?!" I replied, and Tony squeezed me all the tighter. If he was about to ask me another question, as his grip loosened, he timed it badly. I heard and felt the rush of power as the Tesseract reached its critical mass, and I veered away as a blast of hot white light soared skyward, hitting the clouds before dissolving into blackness and stars that weren't Earth's. Mina quickly highlighted targets as my focus turned to blowing these bastards up.

"…right," Tony muttered next to me. "Army."

"I'll take half if you want half!" I retorted, but we both shot up towards the oncoming wave. Regular flying was one thing; flying in combat, firing my repulsors and twisting around the quick hovercraft carrying the Chitauri invaders was another. My attention was divided between flight, repulsors, and armor integrity, and somehow I was able to handle all of it. All I had to do was aim and move and it _happened_. It was an intoxicating sensation, but I didn't let it get to my head, especially as Tony and I corkscrewed around each other, trying to shoot down as many Chitauri as we could. But there were too many, even for us; squadrons slipped past us and unleashed their fury on New York.

"Break off from here, they're in the streets," I told Tony, even as Mina started lighting up alien signals and flashed a trace progress. "Some signal is coordinating their attack, Mina's on it. Don't let them get out of Midtown!"

"Hey, _duh_," Tony retorted, but I ignored him, tearing south while Tony fired west.

"Starks!" Natashalie called in. "What's the situation?"

"The portal's open, in case you didn't notice, Nat," I grumbled, trying to keep after one squad while another held onto my tail.

"What, did you guys stop for drive-thru?!" was Tony's retort, and I could easily imagine Nat's eye roll before Tony sighed and directed them towards Park Avenue. I grinned and followed suit, leading my pack into a three-way crossfire with Tony's, plus fire from a quinjet rotary rifle. It was a beautiful sound. Even though Tony peeled off to deal with more Chitauri fliers, I soared up with the quinjet towards the top of Stark Tower, and was very surprised to find Thor fighting his brother hand to hand, his hammer against that scepter. But we weren't invisible to Loki, and once he shoved off Thor he aimed a shot at the quinjet. It started going down, but in retort I launched myself at him, shoving him off the balcony and back into the apartment. I got myself settled on the floor while Loki skidded a little, and he glared at me when he was back on his feet.

"Didja miss me?" I asked with a smirk plastered all over my face. "And look! I even got my arm fixed!"

To prove it, I spun my arm around in a circle, and, as expected, Loki wasn't impressed.

"I don't _care_, you piece of mortal filth," he snarled.

"Aw, that's too bad. 'Cause look what I can do."

I fired a repulsor at him, and as he flew back and blasted forward on a short burst, fist clenched as a plasma blade came out from my wrist. Loki managed to block it, but this time he couldn't shove me off, not while I was pinning him. But he was able to squirm away, but more luck fell to my side as Thor's hammer flew at him, forcing me to jump back and sent Loki tumbling off to the side. Mjolnir flew back to Thor's hand, but before either of us could get another swing Loki ran and jumped out through the window behind the bar, and I cursed to watch him fly off on one of those platforms.

"Ill-timed, but you could hold him," Thor said, sounding a little confused. "How is this?"

"It's new, I don't really know, either," I insisted, "but we don't have the time to discuss it!"

"Agreed," Thor noted briskly, and I flew out Loki's hole to get back on the streets. Maybe I could find him again.

"Andy, Barton, Nat, and Steve are on the ground," Mina reported as I circled Midtown, firing down Chitauri and keeping a watch for Loki. "They're trying to get civilians away from the central battleground."

"And?" I pressed, making a hard turn to head that way. Mina didn't have to answer: a massive sea-monster-like creature loomed out in front of me with a roar, and I had to duck under it to avoid its massive jaws. Bronze-like armor plate covered it, segmented and revealing no weaknesses. Spines edges along its belly, which also seemed to act as a troop deployment mechanism, because _more_ Chitauri were flying out from it and gaining purchase on the skyscrapers.

"Mina, get everyone's communication lined up on me, if they have it," I ordered, and when she confirmed I barked, "Regroup at Grand Central, we don't have time for this."

"Did you _see_ that?" Steve asked; I assumed that he was saving the 'hello, are you all right' until after New York got rescued from aliens.

"Seeing, still working on believing," Tony noted. I managed to get to Grand Central, spotting Steve easily, and picking out Nat and Barton as I landed in a jog, getting a plasma blade back out and hacking down a few more Chitauri that were about to get too close to Barton.

"So you're back to normal, huh, Hawkeye?" I asked, and he smirked as me as he aimed over my shoulder, shooting down a Chitauri and tiny bolts coming out from that arrow to hit the others too close.

"Feelin' all right, though my head still hurts," he noted.

"Cognitive recalibration does that," Nat sighed as she finished taking down a group of Chitauri herself. She glanced up at the portal, but I turned to see more Chitauri on approach. I grit my teeth and braced myself to strike, but a lightning strike out of nowhere roasted them. Thor landed right after it, a little shaky but he managed to straighten up quickly as I shut down my blade and headed for him, Steve right behind him.

"The Cube is surrounded by a barrier of energy," the Asgardian reported, which made me frown under my helmet. "We cannot breach it."

"Thor's right, we gotta deal with these guys!" Tony agreed in my ear, whizzing past. I took the chance to shoot some Chitauri flying after him.

"Closing the portal's top priority," I started saying.

"I have business to settle with Loki," Thor interrupted, and Barton looked up from the arrows he was checking on.

"Get in line, pal…" he muttered, but Steve took command.

"Calm down. Like Andy said, we've got that portal, but we also need to keep people from getting killed down here," he insisted, and I nodded at his assessment of the situation. "We've got Stark up top –"

Hearing an engine that didn't belong to a Chitauri flier jerked all of us out of strategizing mode, and I opened my faceplate to grin when I saw none other than Bruce Banner slip off a battered old motorcycle, in new clothes and looking a little rough from earlier. Right now, there wasn't a more welcome sight.

"So…this all seems horrible," Banner quipped as I headed for him, smirking a little, hands on my hips.

"Well, I can say I've seen worse," I retorted, and he managed an apologetic half-smile.

"Sorry. For…both times."

"Don't worry about it," I replied with a wave. "In fact, I think we could use worse right now."

"Is it Banner?" Tony asked in my ear, and I dropped my faceplate to check where he was.

"Yeaaaah…whyyyy?"

"Tell him to suit up!" Tony replied almost cheerfully. That was never a good thing. "I'm bringing the party to you!"

"…you're what," I muttered, looking up towards where I was tracking him. He zipped around the corner of a skyscraper, which was quickly demolished by the leviathan I had dodged earlier. I fought back a whimper of displeasure as Tony led it directly towards us, keeping high even though the leviathan had seen us, scraping its belly along the pavement to come for us.

"…that doesn't look like a party…" Natashalie noted uneasily, and I could agree with her there. But Bruce seemed unfazed, turning towards the monster and even starting to take a few steps towards it.

"Hey, doc," I called out uneasily, getting him to pause and look back at me. I weighed all the stupid things I could possibly say and settled on, "Sure hope you can get angry right about now."

"That's just it, Andy," Bruce replied with a bit of an ironic smile. "That's my secret. I'm always angry."

My eyes widened as he turned towards the leviathan that was now less than ten feet from him, and smoothly went from Bruce Banner to the Hulk while completing that turn. Hulk brought his fist crashing down in the Leviathan's head, roaring in defiance, the impact making the street under my feet shaking. I staggered back as the leviathan crumpled upward, the armor peeling away at the unnatural movement, and automatically I raised an arm and fired a repulsor blast at an exposed area. At the same time, Tony shot a missile into another part of the monster, blasting it apart and purplish alien guts spewing out. Steve grabbed me around the waist, raising his shield to block us from the shocks that shook through the ground as the leviathan tumbled off our street. All around us the Chitauri were shrieking and chittering, as if shocked by our sudden victory. Hulk roared back, moving back next to me as I stepped out from under Steve's shield. Tony landed behind me, and between him and Steve were Barton and Nat.

We had assembled.


	11. 10: My Promise

**10: My Promise**

The problem with taking out one of those giant flying sea monsters seems to be this: it has friends. It wasn't a good moment when my sense of 'this is so damned amazing I love being me' got interrupted by Mina.

"Uh…Andy…there's more coming…"

"…you gotta be kidding me!" I moaned as I turned to look up at the portal, and, sure enough, at least three more leviathans were coming through.

"Guys…" Nat warned aloud to everyone else.

"…your call, Cap," Tony decided to note, but even though Steve moved up next to me he turned to look at me instead.

"…well, ladies first," he insisted. I gave him a look that I don't think he caught, but I was pretty sure he knew that I didn't entirely approve of him calling me a lady. I'm not, remember? But I swallowed and took a deep breath. Okay. Known number of platforms, known number of leviathans, the seven of us…

"First, Barton, you, on a building, watching and shooting these fliers. Any patterns or strays we can wipe out, you say so. Tony, we both got an early crack, you hold a perimeter; anything comes at you, bring it back to Midtown or blow it up."

"Aw, no fair," Tony grumbled.

"Gonna gimme a lift?" Barton asked, and I looked back to see he was looking at Tony instead of me. I could imagine Tony's conceding eye roll. Right now, after all, I _was_ the boss-lady. He'd deferred to Steve, who had deferred to me. Speaking of whom, his hand had slipped subtly into mine.

"Better clench up, Legolas," Tony sighed, and I heard him take off before I turned to look at Thor.

"We need to keep any more of those things coming out," I said, "and you've got lightning. Use it and light 'em up."

The euphemism didn't seem lost on Thor, for once, and I was glad to see him soar into the air to get in position. This left me with Steve, Nat, and Hulk, who was definitely spoiling for a fight. His task was going to be easy.

"Steve, you, me, and Nat keep the fighting on the ground focused on us. I can move between everyone, but the pressure's going to be here," I ordered. Nat gave me one nod of understanding, and Steve squeezed my hand before slipping out of my grip. That was when I turned to Hulk and smirked to myself. Easiest order ever.

"Hey, Hulk!"

He turned with a gruff 'huh' of sorts, eyes fully fixed on me.

"Smash."

One of the scariest things in the world is seeing Hulk smile, and it was very disquieting to get one from him when I told him that. But he leaped up onto the nearest building with a roar and, sure enough, began smashing Chitauri into buildings, using his tough skin to his advantage. That _did_ look like fun, in a way.

But there wasn't much time left to muse on fun things outside of the moment, which became rapidly true as the Chitauri closed in on us. A massive spike of lighting came down on the Chrysler Building, only to rebound into the portal (that would be Thor); attack platforms were led on merry chases around the buildings, forcing them to crash because they couldn't compensate (both me and Tony) or inexplicably fell apart or exploded or the pilots suddenly died (Barton's work). On the ground I slashed, kicked, blasted, and threw off as many Chitauri as came after me. When I found myself in front of Grand Central again, I was back to back with Steve, his shield pounding Chitauri aside while my swords cut them to ribbons.

"Steve, I got an idea, turn around and get your shield up!" I called out as we got surrounded. He did so immediately, and when I turned to face him I fired off my two hand repulsors into the shield. Steve caught my idea and angled the shield to reflect the energy on both sides, blasting off the Chitauri thanks to simple optical physics. It didn't slow them down that much, though, and when Steve hurled his shield over my shoulder I saw Chitauri coming at his back. So to both dodge the shield _and_ keep Steve from getting attacked from behind, I lunged forward, my blades stabbing forward on either side of Steve, just under his arms. I successfully stabbed the two Chitauri, plus a very impromptu hug. So that was a plus.

"_Look out, comin' through!_" Tony insisted as I moved back from Steve so he could get his shield, and Tony fired past us, bowling through a crowd of Chitauri coming at us and Nat. Another plus: Tony actually using his head in a useful way.

"Good down here? There's more of those platforms flying around than I'd like," I told Steve once Tony had moved back into the air.

"_Yeah, red-Stark, you got a lot of strays sniffin' your tail_," Barton agreed, and I snorted at the modified so he could tell us apart. "_They can't bank worth a damn, so find tight corners_!"

Third plus: New York has tight corners. And lots of them.

"We're good down here, go," Steve insisted, breathing heavily but not looking tired. I was hardly winded myself, so I gave him a bit of a nod before shooting into the air. I started finding my own packs of fliers to shoot down, avoiding the leviathans at all costs since, after all, they seemed to be more in the range of 'let Hulk take _that_ one'. I caught up with Tony as we spiraled through Midtown, and decided to take a chance at poking at his pop culture peeking out.

"So you really _have_ seen _Lord of the Rings_, huh?" I asked as I turned to shoot down some of our pack followers.

"_Of course I have!_" Tony retorted as we banked hard left and lost at least one or two to the turn. "_I'm not _boring_…_"

"I didn't say you were boring, I'm saying it's unexpected. And I thought boring for you was not riding in the Grand Prix while _dying_."

"_But this's way awesomer than that! And I'm not dying _now_…_"

"_My God, Starks, do you two _ever_ shut the hell _up?!" Barton asked after I heard a platform splinter apart once we blasted past his sniping post. I took a chance to clear his zone by firing down Chitauri that were starting to climb up after him, though I knew from the still-incoming data that more were definitely going to be heading his direction. Remember what I said about Barton being a mission hardass? Yeah, this is what I mean.

"Sorry, Hawkeye, chat's how the other half gets through the day," I told him.

"_Well, not when we're awake we don't_," Tony clarified, and I smothered a laugh as Barton groaned. Right. Alien invasion time.

I split off from Tony to try and clear out the streets on the inside of our section of New York, but I was interrupted by a shot that came right at me. I managed to turn away from it, but a glance back over my shoulder showed me two golden horns and a fluttering green cape. There he was.

"You," I growled as Loki tried to fire at me again. I slid away from his shots easily – guy has no aim – before I started moving en route for Barton. He'd want a little something out of this guy. Of course, Loki didn't seem happy that I was either still alive or dodging him, because he kept after me almost single-mindedly. Well then.

"Fine, asshole, let's dance," I growled under my breath. "Mina, get in his guidance systems and shut down his gun."

"Yes ma'am!" Mina replied briskly before I pulled up the Avenger communication web again.

"Hey, Barton, you still wanna shoot Loki?" I asked, starting to come up on his block.

"_Hell yes_," he replied coldly, and I smirked a little as I sped up, Loki's platform losing ground on me.

"Then here's your opening, champ!"

I flew past Barton, barely inches from his post, and there was Loki, in clear shot. I peeled back towards Grand Central, scowling as I eyed the portal.

"Mina, how's cracking that master system going?"

"Nowhere; the source is complex and too far away to keep a good connection for long, even with the portal open," she reported, flashing an "image" at me of the network she was trying to bust into.

"So close the portal, stop the aliens."

"Pretty much!"

"_Andy, I need to get to the Tesseract,_" Nat called in. Her voice was tired, but even with that her direction was clear. "_Give me a lift, I might be able to shut it down if I can see it_."

"Copy that, moving in; get ready for a ride!" I replied as I moved in low, below the line of fliers that could swoop down after me. I stole a glance back to see that Loki had gotten past Barton, but Loki himself was flying off his destroyed transport, heading for the balcony on Stark Tower, though all the letters except the A had been blasted off by the fighting. I reached down to grab Nat, hefting her onto my back and heading up after Loki. I saw Hulk flying towards him, too, which meant big trouble for Loki very soon. Even though I didn't land on the roof, Nat slid off my back cleanly, dropping down onto the gravel without incident. That was when I looped back and landed outside the balcony door.

The sight I beheld was so amazing I recorded it to keep forever. Hulk had Loki by the ankle and was smashing the man, as if he were nothing more than a rag doll, into the stone floor. By the time I'd actually stepped inside Hulk had done this maybe three times and was checking to see if Loki was still conscious. He was, and therefore got smashed at least twice more before being tossed back into the floor and released. I was doing my best not to laugh, but I cracked up as Hulk walked away from him and offered me a punch line.

"Puny god."

Worse, Loki squeaked in the most hilarious and simultaneously pitiful way imaginable. I had to stop recording so I could laugh and give Hulk a nod.

"Nicely put," I managed to say once my laughter had passed. I wandered inside and even offered Loki a strong kick in the ribs, despite the glare he tried to give me. "That was for Coulson."

I looked up to find Nat out on the balcony now, holding Loki's scepter and waving it at me. I took it as a sign that she had a plan and offered her a thumbs up before taking off. Time to find Tony and make sure that perimeter was holding –

"Andy!" Mind yelped in my ear, making me wince. "Fury's jerkish superiors are moving without him!"

"…speak _English_, Mina!"

"They've sent a nuclear missile your way!" she clarified, and a cold pit fell into my stomach. So the council was willing to kill us all, including the civilians, to try and destroy the Cube? But my cold feeling got worse as Mina added, "Tony's moving to intercept, but whatever he has in his head –"

I didn't let Mina finish. I fired out of Stark Tower, dead south, towards the river, past Liberty Island and towards the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. I was able to spot Tony, and the missile, and when he grabbed on I moved in on the other side and grabbed on with him, linking my arm with his.

Nearly two years ago, after we had killed Stane and stopped him from giving the Ten Rings a prototype of our suits, Tony had nearly died himself, spending several days in the hospital. I stayed at his side, and with him unconscious I made a promise. I promised I would never, ever leave him again, not even if he tried to make me go. And if he was going to do what I thought he was doing, then I was coming, too.

"What're you doing?!" I asked, just for appearances' sake.

"_Gettin' rid of this thing_!" Tony replied, and I tightened my grip. There was only one place it could go.

"Well don't go killing yourself, not when I'm not around to tell you you're crazy!" I retorted, tightening my grip on the missile.

"…_I'm not trying to kill myself_," Tony said.

"It's both of us or neither," I declared firmly, trying not to let my voice shake. "I am _not_ losing you."

"_Dammit, Andy, I'm not letting _you_ die just because you're so damned stubborn_!" Tony shot off, but he wasn't trying to push me off. He knew I had obligated myself to never leaving his, and that meant in death, too. Mina had closed off the full communications web when I had gone to meet up with Tony, and I had a painful lump in my throat.

_We're changing the world, Mom. Saving it. Like you would've wanted us to._

"…should I get Steve?" Mina asked softly, forcing me to swallow down the lump that was nearly in my mouth.

"…might as well," I managed to choke out. I tried to close the line to Tony, but he had finally realized what I was up to. So he hadn't remembered…

"_Andy, this isn't cool_!"

"It's not cool for you, either!"

"_I have to do it anyway_!"

"Then so do I!"

"_No, you _don't_. Go hang out with your boyfriend or something_!"

Tony, did you really forget, or thought I was delirious, a year ago?

"…I made a _promise_," I retorted, trying not to cry. "I _promised_ I wasn't going to leave. Not even if you tried to make me. I'm not going anywhere, or doing anything, without you ever again."

That shut up Tony for long enough to close the line, so he wasn't listening in as Mina connected me and Steve.

"Hey…um…there's this…thing, and Tony and I have to handle it –"

"_No, you don't_," Steve replied immediately. He sounded…scared. Nervous. I swallowed hard, trying not to cry or seem like I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't. I didn't even know if I was going to survive going through that portal. But I wasn't going to lose Tony at the same time.

"…I can't let Tony go alone," I tried to quip weakly. "He gets into trouble when I'm not around, remember? I – I have to."

That lump in my throat was back, and my eyes were blurry even though I knew we were headed straight for Stark Tower.

"…I love you, Steve," I managed to whisper, so he couldn't hear my voice shaking. "I – I love you, I'm so, so _sorry_…"

"…Andy…we…we can work this out," he tried to assure me, but it felt rehearsed, like someone else had said it to him so long ago. Had it been Mom? The thought of her nearly made me sob. _I hope you and Dad are proud of us._

"…if we don't make it – if I don't make it, I – I'll tell Mom you said hi," I replied lamely, to try and break his script. "Okay?"

"…I love you."

A single sob eked out of me, but my eyes cleared for long enough to see Stark Tower looming ahead of us. I tightened my grip and started breathing in. Space was a vacuum. If I was going to come back, I needed air. I sealed the suit as best I could before I started pushing the missile up. Tony's chest thrusters fired to help, and soon we were skimming the side of Stark Tower, and instead of the sky, diamond-like stars winked at us on black velvet. They spread around us, growing sharper, until they were all around us. My chest hurt. My screen fizzled out as I lost Mina.

And I _saw_.

The Chitauri base was a space station, massive, framed against a blue star. I could see four arms but I knew there had to be more, given the huge number of fliers and leviathans approaching the portal. Too many to count Too many to fight alone.

_What's out here with an army so massive?_

Tony's arm went limp against mine, and I managed enough strength to grab him, letting go of the nuke, and with my chest burning from the breath I was holding to try and turn back for the portal. I managed to fire my main thrusters, but I was running out. I was suffocating on my own air.

_I'm so sorry. I haven't done anything with my life but I'm going to die._

Just beyond the bright light of the portal, though, I could see an asteroid, carved and molded up to a peak. I forced myself to look closer, even as my head spun from oxygen deprivation. On the peak was a throne. In the throne was a man, but _not_ a human man. He was tall and broad, and his face was a deep purple, his massive jaw and chin the only real things I could make out.

_You. You sent Loki. He wasn't the bad guy here. You are!_

He stood from his seat. He had seen that I was still alive, even if Tony wasn't. I clung to Tony's limp body tightly – easily done in space – before a deep, echoing voice that wasn't mine or Mina's or anyone's rang out in my mind.

_**I will find you again, human**_.

I lost what little air I had left by screaming into the silence as my face began to burn, around my eye, back towards my temple. If vacuum wasn't going to kill me, he would.

I forced one last burst to my boot thrusters, the grid plan of New York getting closer, and with my face aching and my being throbbing in horror, everything went black.


	12. 11: Not Alone

**A/N:** This is...it. This is the end. Of L2R, at least. I'm glad there were so many people who've shown support for this little fic, named and not. It's been a real blast to see what you all have said and loved about Andy, Mina, and what I've done with the movieverse.

So you're all probably wondering 'will there be more?!' Well, given that the goal was to get this done by IM3's release, why not! So I hope to soon have a remix of _Iron Man 3_, tentatively titled _Reignite_, live within a week or so of IM3's release. I do, after all, have to see the movie, get the ideas, see where I can work in Andy and everything else that happens, maybe see the movie again...

Anyway, thanks for the support, everyone, and enjoy the conclusion of _Live to Rise_!

* * *

**11: Not Alone**

The first thing I was very dimly aware of was my face. The area around my right eye was itching, all the way back to my temple along to a fine point at my hairline. The second thing was that I was breathing in smoke and gas and concrete. So someone had my mask off. Maybe Mina had done that.

I thought I could hear a voice saying my name, and my chest hitched a little as a spark shot through my awareness.

I wasn't dead, that was for sure.

Something warm and soft pressed against my mouth, and I realized someone was kissing me, someone else's tears were hitting my cheeks. My eyes flickered open in surprise, but all I really had to see was Steve's mussed golden hair and I closed them again so I could kiss him back. I was…alive. I was _alive_. And right now it felt really, _really_ good_._ Steve broke off his kiss to pull me up off the ground, armor and all, and embraced me fiercely. I dug my chin over his shoulder, cheek against his neck, as I kept regaining consciousness.

"…Steve," I murmured, nestling a little tighter against him before getting my arms tight. I couldn't say much more than that as the last thing I had seen flickered into my mind: the man in his throne with the silent voice. Loki hadn't been the major threat. _He_ was. And he knew where I was, _who_ I was.

No doubts he was going to gun for me. Not now, but sometime, soon.

"I was so worried," Steve mumbled, rubbing my back plates slowly, but I managed to hold myself up, turning to see Thor and Hulk watching us. But…where was… I turned back to Steve, trying not to let my voice shake.

"…wh-what about Tony? Is…is he…?" I asked, but Steve winced apologetically. That was okay; if he had been worried for me, I didn't blame him. He moved out from in front of me, and behind him on the ground, his mask torn off rather than lifted like mine, was Tony, eyes shut and not moving.

_No. No no NO!_

I moved past Steve and dropped to my knees at Tony's side, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him weakly. No…no…I couldn't have gone through all that with him just so he could die!

"Tony!" I yelled at him, though my throat was sore and as it was I shouldn't have been screaming and yelling yet. "Tony, don't you _dare_, don't…don't you _dare_…you selfish _bastard_!"

I slammed a fist down onto his chest as the tears came, my shoulders hunching forward. I hit him again to try and hide the sobs clawing out of my throat. I felt Steve's hand on my shoulder, saw Hulk out of the corner of my eye watching me, but it wasn't enough.

"…you can't die on me, Tony," I pleaded, shaking him again so I didn't accidentally break one of his ribs. Steve's hand moved around my shoulders, and I didn't turn away from the consoling hug he offered, burying my face against his shoulder and crying mercilessly. I couldn't have failed him…how could I have lived while he had died? I heard Hulk huff in disgust before roaring, so close it made me start slightly. But I heard a familiar yelp, plus a slight kick in my back, and I turned away from Steve, eyes wide to see Tony awake, eyes wide and disoriented. I didn't give him a chance to recover from his shock; I let go of Steve and fell right onto my brother, clinging tightly and crying on him instead. Tony's arms tightened around me, though he was shaking.

"…did you call me a selfish bastard?" he asked after a moment, and I couldn't help but laugh weakly.

"You were going to just leave me all by myself, of course I called you that."

"…'m not a selfish bastard…"

"No, you're _my_ selfish bastard," I retorted, "so shut up and hold me."

Tony sat up a bit as he did so, and I looked around behind him, at Steve and Thor and Hulk, and I realized, even if Tony and I had done the literal saving part, we couldn't have done it without them. We had all saved the world. Of course a major surprise was Hulk reaching down to scoop the both of us up and actually hugged us tight, though it probably hurt more than it should have, and when he let me and Tony go Steve came to give me another hug.

"…we did it," he told me – us – with a smile. I couldn't help but offer a cocky smirk as I managed to stand up.

"We _so_ did," I agreed, though I had to catch Tony before he nearly fell over.

"Hell _yeah_ we did," he added, though I was propping him up. Sigh. Selfish bastard plus overprotective elder brother, no doubt.

"Okay, Tony, stay calm, probably still a little disoriented from being out there –"

"Can we try shawarma after this? I dunno what it is, but that's a cool word."

Yeah, definitely a little bit oxygen-deprived. I slung one of his arms over my neck so he could still stand upright though I was mostly carrying him.

"How about _after_ we finish dealing with Loki, uh, big guy?"

"Aw, I'm the big guy now?"

"Because Hulk's the _bigger_ guy," I retorted, which got Hulk to snort in amusement. "Now shut up and breathe, Tony…"

"I _am_ breathing…"

"You know what I mean…"

All in all, we hadn't lost anyone. The Chitauri had apparently been out for more scare tactics than actual killing, because we didn't see any dead non-Chitauri in the streets. Midtown hadn't entirely collapsed yet, but I knew there would have to be a _lot_ of reconstruction work. NYPD and the National Guard had held the line on the ground, and for that I was infinitely grateful. Who knew what those monsters would have done if we hadn't contained them so quickly?

Barton was none the worse for wear when he shambled out of the building his perch had been on, though he was out of arrows and had glass bits dug into his shoulder blades. He didn't seem too fazed by it, and picked up a couple arrows on the way to Stark Tower. I made Tony give us access to "his" elevator (Hulk, obviously, didn't fit, so he opted to get up to Stark Tower via other buildings), and soon we were up in the ruins of what I guess had been his and Pepper's apartment. Hulk landed inside as we stepped out, and Nat appeared from the balcony, toting Loki's scepter and head held high.

"Got the portal closed?" I asked her, noticing a faint smirk in her lips.

"Obviously."

"At least you didn't close it before me and the crazy one got through, so…thanks. Natasha."

"Well, that's an improvement," was all she had time to comment. Loki was starting to crawl out of the indentation Hulk had thrown him into, and Barton was pushing forward through us.

"Move it, people, this guy get an arrow to the eye socket…"

"Barton. Seriously?" I asked, following him and half-dragging Tony with me.

"He puts me under mind control, I gotta get something off him…"

"Can't you be happy with threatening him?"

"Why?"

"He's got his brother to deal with, too, remember."

Thor nodded at me as we arrayed near Barton, while Loki got himself to a nearly-seated position, his back to us. Tony was able to stand by this point, so I squared my shoulders behind where Barton was crouched, taking his aim, and when Loki turned I smirked at him darkly. He seemed to know he was defeated, and I noticed, a little uneasily, that instead of blue his eyes were suddenly green. That…wasn't normal.

"…if it's all the same to you," he sighed, slumping back against the floor where he had dragged himself, "I…think I'll have a drink now."

"Just get _out_," I noted. "Out of this building, out of New York, and off Earth. I'm sure Thor'd love to take you."

Loki seemed to be taking it quietly, but when Thor hefted him past us Loki grabbed my arm, leaning close to me.

"…you saw _him_," he stated, almost…afraid. My brows folded a little as Loki continued, "Do _not_ underestimate him. He is more powerful than you know."

No one else seemed to hear Loki's warning as Thor tugged him away, and though Tony left to get out of his armor, Hulk began turning back into Bruce, and Nat and Clint found someplace to lie down and crash I was one of two that stood still, shuddering a little. So I was right. Loki wasn't the source.

I managed to move from my spot and shed my armor, getting it to pack up on itself so I didn't have to carry it, rolling my shoulders and stretching before Steve came over to my side, smiling a bit as he set his shield down next to my packed armor. He softly brushed some hair out of my face, but his eyes turned concerned as he looked at the burn around my eye.

"…how did that happen?" he asked quietly, for Nat and Clint's sakes, since Bruce had shuffled upstairs to borrow some clothes from Tony. I shrugged a little, more enjoying his hand on my face.

"…there was something else out there, Steve," I said eventually, sighing a little. "Something…bigger than Loki, bigger than the Chitauri."

I lifted one hand and carefully touched the skin around my eye. It felt raw and warm, but it didn't sting, nor did I need to squint on account of it. I swallowed a little before glancing up at Steve, his concern written plainly on his face.

"He knows we've won, and he's going to be back," I finished uneasily. "We have to be ready when he does."

"…so what's that?" he pressed, obviously meaning the scarring. I thought it through and settled on the most obvious explanation.

"A death mark. I think."

"Well he's not getting you," Steve insisted, easing his arms around me. But I remembered Loki's threat, of killing everyone I cared about. If that hadn't really been Loki, but the thing using him…

"…then he's not getting you, either," I told him firmly. "You, or Tony, or anyone else. He'll try to take you first, you or Tony, but I won't let him. I _won't_."

I hugged Steve tightly at my declaration, and he held me right back, rubbing my back softly. I pressed my cheek against his chest gently, and…I knew. I knew this was what I had to do. Protect them, these people SHIELD had brought together, who couldn't really get along but could manage to set aside their differences long enough to do what had to be done.

"…just let me worry about you, all right?" Steve murmured softly, and I chuckled a little.

"Something of an impossible task, Captain…"

"Well, I have this bad habit of taking the impossible tasks. Something we have in common, I think."

"So…is…this your way of saying you…like me?" I asked, moving back a little to look up at him. Steve smiled at me faintly.

"Yes. Yes, it is."

I couldn't help a bout of shyness. After all, this would be my first real boyfriend ever. Kissing me down on the ground had been different. Any kissing, like from before I left for Long Island, was going to be different. But maybe different was good for me.

"Even though I'm definitely not the sort of lady you'd meet in your time?"

"Andy, I don't have to be in 'my time' to know a good woman when I see one."

My cheeks got warm at that, and I scuffled my feet a little at his praise.

"…even with the funky burn on my face?"

Steve retaliated by resting his hands on my arms and leaning forward to kiss the aforementioned burn. Well then.

"…you missed," I corrected him before resting my hand on the star emblazoned on his chest and kissing him properly. I think I could get used to this.

Except.

"…well this is awkward."

I broke off from kissing my boyfriend for a moment.

"…one second, Steve…"

I turned on Tony and charged at him with all the little-sister annoyance I could muster.

_"TONY LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE RIGHT NOW!"_

So, as you might expect, life went back to nearly normal. I say nearly because it took about a week for Selvig and Bruce to build the containment device, following some of Thor's parameters, that would take the Tesseract, him, and Loki back to Asgard. Within that same week, though, I flew up to the helicarrier, not to debrief with Fury, but to face the council that effectively dictated SHIELD's every move.

So it was, three days after the battle in New York, I was standing, in full armor sans helmet, in a secure communications room facing the video and audio feeds of the four shadowy figures that controlled SHIELD, and, in essence, controlled the security of the entire world. I had an idea of where to trace them, but very little as to who they were. It didn't matter.

"Where are the rest of the Avengers?" one of three men asked, his voice accented with something that sounded like Spanish, or at least continental Europe. I kept my hands clamped together in the small of my back.

"That's not for you to know, _sir_. The Avengers don't answer to SHIELD."

"You, Agent Stark, answer to us, as do Barton and Romanoff," the lone woman on the council retorted, but I kept my cool.

"In my capacity as an agent for SHIELD, yes. But as the effective leader of the Avengers, I am telling you, once and for all, the Avengers _do not answer to SHIELD_. We're not going to be co-opted and put in a situation where we cannot operate to our best efficiency. So here's the deal. You leave all of us alone, except those of us who work for SHIELD and are willing to operate in that capacity. And when something as big, or even bigger, than Loki and his army comes knocking, we'll be ready."

"You realize you're telling us that the most dangerous people in the world are simply going to disappear, and there is nothing we can do about it," another one of the men, his voice stone-cold Northeast, remarked.

"That's not quite it," I clarified. "See, the world knows we're here. And they know we'll do our best to fight for them. But so does every other world out there."

"Is that the point of all this? A statement?"

I straightened up to tilt my chin at the defiantly.

"A _promise_."

I turned and walked out at that. Fury was just outside, and he smirked at me in what seemed to be amusement and pride.

"Nice choice of words."

"It's true. So consider that mission done, then. All I get to do is make sure Loki gets off Earth smoothly."

"…then good luck, Agent Stark," Fury replied, offering his hand to me. I tentatively took it, shaking as he added, "I'm sure you'll need it."

"Thanks. I think."

A couple days later, the Avengers – plus Loki and Selvig – assembled one more time, unofficially, in Central Park to see off Loki, Thor, and the Cube. I had to hide a smirk to see that Loki was gagged when I swung off my recently-arrived custom bike, unzipping my biker jacket a little as we circled the area. In short, they left without a hitch, and the rest of us began separating. Nat and Barton shot off on their own, and Tony came over to nudge me in the side.

"Hey, I had this idea…"

"…and it was terrible but you're running with it anyway?" I quipped, getting him to grin.

"You saw what happened to our building, right?"

"Uh, it's your building, Tony…"

"That's not the point, just…look, okay?"

I did, following Tony's gaze, and seeing the A, standing out proudly on Stark Tower…suddenly I knew what he was getting at. There'd be other Stark Towers around the world, but the Avengers needed both a home and a base of operations. There was a house I currently wasn't living in, and an office building that was effectively marked as our territory. I looked away from the building to look at Tony, who was grinning at me.

"Get it?"

"I think so. So you're going to give me the building?"

"Maaaaybe. Only maybe, gotta clean up the place first."

"But I'm still allowed to stay with you, _right_?"

Tony squeezed me tight around the shoulders, and I nestled into his embrace. I'd take that as a yes.

"So where're you off to?"

"Only the amazingest place in New York," he told me with a firm head kiss. "Showing off to Banner, maybe get him to stay."

"Fine, fine, whatever, just don't let other-him out, okay?"

"No promises!" Tony laughed before he jogged for his shiny-new Acura convertible and waved for Bruce to climb in. They both waved before Tony drive off, and soon it was just me and Steve and our bikes.

"…so where do we go from here?" Steve asked with a smile. I shrugged a little, despite my grin back.

"Well, no doubt you've got a lot to catch up on, and I have to wrangle Tony, make sure things don't explode, y'know," I replied. "But I have to work on me, too."

"Oh really?"

"Yes, really. Some body work, gotta keep lookin' good, I have SHIELD _and_ you crazies to deal with, _plus_ I'm finally in a real relationship, so, y'know…"

"Well, I hope you can fit me into all of that schedule," Steve replied, easing an arm around my waist. I replied by resting my arms around his neck as he added, "'Cause it looks like I've got a real relationship to work on, too…SHIELD…catching up…"

"Well, maybe we can do the SHIELD stuff together sometime."

"And the relationship?"

I smiled widely.

"That, too," I told him before kissing him warmly.

Ready or not, world. Here I am, and I am not alone.


End file.
